


Protect that Smile

by drrrs



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gangsters, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate universe - Mafia, Angst, Angst and Tragedy, Blood and Gore, Emotional Hurt, Killing, M/M, Multi, Pain, Revenge, Slow Burn, Some characters might be ooc im so sorry, Strong Language, The alien races are mafia families, Time Skips, allura is part of the rival gang too, and everyone really, and the aliens are all humanoid, hunk can make sick drinks, it's painful for both keith and lance, keith is a brooding bad boy, kinda yandere lance, pidge uses she and they pronouns but mostly they, shiro is a gangster, tags will update as the story will update
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-06
Updated: 2016-09-02
Packaged: 2018-07-29 19:43:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 24,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7697062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drrrs/pseuds/drrrs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Keith's life turned completely upside down after witnessing a horrible tragedy. Seeing him bear all of this pain was too much for Lance. He decided that he would be the one to protect Keith from everything.<br/>Even if it meant assisting Keith into a bloody revenge in the dark world of crime, a world Lance never thought he would find himself into. Even if it meant going up against the people responsible for ruining Keith's life - the ruthless and most notorious gang in  the city, the Galras.<br/>But that didn't matter. It would all be worth seeing Keith smile again.</p><p>aka everyone suffers physically and psychologically in this modern mafia/gangster AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Bloody Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> So here's a mafia/gangster au that no one asked for lol. Also this fic exists because:  
> 1\. I am a huge HUGE sucker for mafia/gangster/crime genres  
> 2\. This fic is also basically helping me with writer's block for a couple of personal projects (and i think this is more fun)  
> 3\. Klance and Voltron is consuming my life atm, mostly klance  
> 4\. I got really into 91 Days as well and I'm so in love with that anime. So you can kind of see where some of the influences comes from. 
> 
> Also just fyi when I am talking about gangsters I'm not talking about "yo yo yo im an og waddup foo" that kind of gangster. Think of more in terms of The Departed, the Hong Kong Triads, or Casino Royale (though I don't think there was actual gangsters in that movie but anyway).
> 
> Also I will be honest, I'm kind of just writing this as I go so we will see where this fic ends up. Again, I apologize for how messy it is. Special thanks to my friend ondinefay @ tumblr for reading this over and finding grammar mistakes
> 
> The first chapter is more of a prologue.

"Everyone please put away your things. We have a new student today." The excited first graders rushed to their desks and began tidying up their areas as quickly as they could. For young 6-year old Lance, this was especially exciting. This meant a new person, and possibly a new friend! He put away all of the crumbled papers on his desk and stuffed them all inside his desk. He laid his entire weight up on the desk's lid to keep all the junk from spilling out as he rested his head on the heels of his hands with an eager smile spreading across his lips; he already decided that they were going to be his friend no matter what.

The teacher crossed to the door and opened it, motioning the new comer to come in. A small boy with long black hair shuffled through the doorway. He kept his eyes glued to the floor. His small hands gripped his backpack strap so tightly if one really looked closely they could see them shaking slightly. The teacher placed a reassuring arm around the boy's slight shoulders. "I want to see everyone in ready position and track your eyes towards me."

The other first graders not finished cleaning shoved everything else into their desks as fast as they could, then one by one folded their hands together onto their desk, gazing up at the teacher and the new student with a variety of smiles. Lance's face had the widest smile of all and had not averted his gaze from the new boy since his arrival. Once all the shuffling and shifting had ceased the teacher addressed the class.. "Everyone, please say hello to our newest addition. His name is Keith." She gave him a gentle reassuring pat which caused Keith to jump a little.

"Hello Keith!" The class echoed.

Eyes still towards the floor, Keith gave a mumbled "hello" with a small, shaky wave in return. This made Lance smile even wider; now he felt the need to make Keith not as "shaky" anymore.

The teacher gazed warmly down at Keith. "Would you like to tell the class more about yourself?" He looked up at her with big eyes, his mouth hanging slightly agape. Others probably did not notice, but Lance could see that Keith did not seem nervous, it was more than nerves; it was fear. This recalled to his mind of his mama's expression whenever those deep voiced men would appear and ask for something called "tacks."

Keith shook his head vigorously in reply, dropping his gaze once again to the floor. The teacher gave him a small warm smile. "Well, that's alright, we will get to know you as the year goes on," she addressed the room at large. "Won't we class?"

Her answer was followed by a chorus of "Yeah!"

The teacher patted Keith's shoulder again. "Now let's find you a seat. How about...." Her eyes surveyed the room until resting on the only remaining empty seat which to Lance's delight was right beside him. Lance's heart hammered excitedly in his chest as she directed Keith's gaze to the seat. "Your new seat will be beside Lance, he's a very nice boy and I'm sure you two will get along fine, right Lance?"

Lance nodded happily. "Mhm!"

Keith slowly made his way to his seat, taking much care not to look at anyone else. He hung his backpack on the chair and slid into it, his body hunched forward, completely unaware of the boy beside him staring.

"Everyone, please get out your crayons. We are going to start the day with coloring in numbers!" the teacher instructed followed by an uproar of cheers and creaking hinges of desks lids being opened.

Lance grabbed his crayon box from his desk. He looked over at Keith to see him anxiously looking for something in his backpack. Lance realized he probably didn't have any crayons which gave him an idea. He held out the crayon box in front of the other boy's face. "We can share!" Keith looked up to see a smiling Lance. Lance suddenly moved closer to Keith's face as if he was examining something like a detective.

"Wh-what are you doing?"

Lance squinted his eyes with a couple of "hmms" as if he was thinking of something. Then his eyes lit up when he found what he was looking for. "Your eyes! They are so... purple!"

Keith tilted his head. "Purple? Is that bad?"

He shook his head. "Of course not! I've never seen anyone with purple eyes! Except in the Chinese cartoons my brother sometimes watches. But they are so pretty!"

Keith's face suddenly turned into the color of the red crayons in Lance's crayon box. He quickly looked down at his desk with embarrassment. "Th-they aren't pretty!"

A stack of papers plopped near their desks startling the boys. They looked up and were greeted by the stern looking teacher. "Boys please get to work. I'm glad that you're getting to know each other save the chat for recess, okay?"

Keith nodded quickly and Lance replied with, "Okay! I'm sharing my crayons with Keith!"

The teacher chuckled. "How nice! I'm glad you two are becoming friends!"

When she walked away Lance grabbed two papers of trees covered in numbers. "That's right!" Lance said as he passed one paper to Keith, "we are going to become great friends!"

Keith took the paper in his hand as he reached for a brown crayon. "Friends?"

Lance nodded happily. "Yeah! I have already decided we are going to be friends okay?"

Keith stared at him for a little bit and nodded. "Okay."

Lance smiled and giggled. He was happy he completed his mission to having Keith be his friend. He continued to smile at the happy thought of accomplishment as he colored his tree red and blue.

____________________

"Do you want to meet Hunk and Katie?"

Keith looked up from his backpack as he was putting his books away. "Who's Hunk and Katie?"

Lance beamed with that famous toothless smile. "They are my friends! We were in Mr. Garrison's class last year in Kindergarten, but now this year we are different classes. But we still play together at recess and lunch recess!" Keith was about to reply to the question when he felt Lance's hand on his own. "Come on!" shouted an excited Lance.

They were suddenly running out of the classroom and into the bright playground. In front of the playground stood a chubby, darker skin boy that was waving at them and a smaller kid with big glasses that Keith could not tell if they were a boy or girl sitting on the steps of the playground. Lance giggled the entire way of their trip making Keith catch his breath. He pointed to the two children to introduce them. "Keith, these are my friends! Hunk and Katie-"

"I told you to call me Pidge Lance remember? I want to be called Pidge." The smaller glasses kid stood up and gave Lance a pout.

Lance laughed embarrassedly. "Sorry! This is Pidge! She wanted to be called Pidge because she doesn't like the name Katie."

Pidge nodded. "Yeah Pidge just sounds cooler." She looked at Keith in a questioning look. Keith trembled a bit as she stared down at him. "Are you new Keith?"

Keith gulped and replied with a nod. "Yeah... my family and I just moved-"

"Where did you move from Keith?" Hunk stepped in front of Keith. His bulk compared to Keith was so astounding that Lance had to hold back laughter.

"Um..." Keith hesitated. He dropped his gaze to his shoes. Lance noticed his shoes were red just like his backpack. He came to the conclusion on Keith's next birthday he would give him something red.

"Galra..."

"Galra?" questioned Hunk. "What's Galra? I have never of that city..."

"Me too" Lance piped in.

"It's 'me neither' Lance," corrected Pidge as she slide her glasses up. "That's proper English grammar."

"Whatever Pidge!"

"Um no..." Keith shook his head and waved his hands no. "It's not a city. It's hard to explain." Keith continued to stare at the ground giving the other kids their cue that maybe Keith did not want to talk about it anymore.

"Um you guys want to play hide and seek?" Hunk asked to break the silence.

All the other kids simultaneously said "yes."

"Okay I'll be it! I'm going to count to ten!"

"Ten? Hunk that's too short! Make it twenty!" whined Lance.

"Okay fine twenty." Hunk went to the nearest pole to cover his eyes and started counting. "1... 2... 3..."

"Come on Keith!" Lance called. He was already on the play structure. "We got to hide hurry!" Without thinking, Keith followed Lance up the play structure to the top of the tube slide. Lance motioned him to come closer before he went down the slide.

Lance stopped before the bottom of the slide with his shoes. He crouched over behind the slide and peered over the walls of the slide so he could spy on Hunk.

"12... 13.... 14..."

Lance felt something hit him in the butt. He let out an _oof_ and looked back to see Keith had crashed into him. "Scoot back a little," Lance told Keith. Keith scooted a little back as he peered over Lance's shoulder.

"18...19...20!" Hunk got away from the pole and yelled out, "ready or not here I come!" He peered at his surroundings as he walked around the play structure cautiously. Lance giggled knowing that Hunk would not find the two boys hiding in the tube slide. Something seemed to have caught Hunk's eye as he stopped in his tracks. He peered over the smaller slide and yelled "Pidge! I see you!"

"No you don't!" came the reply.

"Pidge!" Hunk yelled at the laughing Pidge who was now running around the play structure. "Come back! I'm supposed to tag you!"

Lance started laughing as he watched a larger boy chase over a smaller kid. It was like watching that cartoon with the big cat and the little mouse that always chase each other. He stopped laughing when he heard more laughter behind him. Turning, he saw Keith laughing and smiling at the sight as well. But to Lance, this was probably an amazing sight to him. Something inside of Lance made him feel warm, like the feeling when Mama makes his favorite chicken enchiladas. For some reason, it made Lance feel so happy to see Keith smiling and laughing. He was not sure why, but he loved that feeling.

"Keith!" He exclaimed, causing the other boy to cease his own laughter."You laughed! You laughed!"

Keith scrunched his eyebrows. "Yeah? Everyone laughs Lance."

"But you laughed! It's so...." He suddenly started hugging him without thinking. Keith felt startled but he did not protest as he was probably still in shock. "...great! It's so great to see you laugh Keith!" Then Lance started laughing as he hugged Keith tighter. And somehow it caused Keith to laugh along with him. He gripped the other boy's back and as he laughed on Lance's shoulder.

"Found you." The two boys looked up from the slide to see a towering Hunk tapping both of their heads. "Double tag!"

______________________

-Four years later-

"Lance where are we going?" Keith was trying to keep up with Lance as the olive skinned boy pulled him by the hand.

"It's a surprise!" Lance shouted as he continued to run. They stopped at a corner to catch their breath. The cold autumn air was starting to chill in the twilight. The boys could see puffs of air coming out of their mouths like little clouds. "Okay!" Lance announced. "This is where I have to do this to you!"

He held out something from his pocket that looked like a bandana. "What are you do-" Before Keith could finish, his eyes were covered and he could only see dark blue cloth.

"I told you it's going to be a surprise!" Lance grabbed Keith's hand again and led him slowly. "Just follow me!"

"How can I do that when I am blindfolded?"

"Well you're following my hand right? Duh!" Lance giggled. He was so excited to see the look on Keith's face in just a few minutes. After a few steps into the cold air and crunching leaves on the floor they stopped. "Give me a second Keith." Keith heard something that sounded like a door opening. Lance grabbed Keith's hand again. "Come in.... and stop!"

"Can I take off the blindfold now?"

"Yup!"

Keith untied the blindfold and looked around. He squinted his eyes in the dark room before realizing where he was. "Lance?" He looked at the other boy with that famous devious smile of his. "Why are we in my house-"

"SURPRISE!" Pidge, Hunk, and Keith's mother emerged from the couch with a chocolate cake in her hands. Ten small candles lit from the cake and it read in bright red icing 'Happy Birthday Keith'.

Keith gasped and held his hands to his mouth. "What is this?"

"It's a surprise party!" Lance put an arm around his smaller friend's shoulder. "I had this planned for a while and I even asked your mom to keep it a secret too!"

Keith looked at his mom and blinked. "Mom? You knew?"

His mother chuckled. Her soft and pretty face made the kind smile that Keith knew and loved. "Lance insisted on having the party and our house was available so why not?"

"What do you think?" Keith turned his head over to Lance. "Do you like it?"

With the sparkle in his purple eyes, Keith made the biggest smile that Lance knew. "Yes!"

The party was a success. It was everything that Keith had ever imagined in a birthday party. There was lots of cake (even though Hunk ate more than half of the entire cake), lots of laughter, and tons of Mario Kart. For presents, Keith got new pairs of headphones from Pidge, a box of candy bars from Hunk, and a knitted red sweater from his mother. He thanked each of them with humbleness. When it was Lance's turn he shifted his feet and had a smug look on his face. He put his hands behind his back to hide his present."I want you to bring your hands out!"

Keith nodded and did as he was told.

Lance placed his hand on top of Keith's. "Ta-da!" Lance exclaimed and waved his hands to show pizzazz.

Keith looked at his hands and it was a small bracelet made of three different types of red ropes that was braided together. Around the bracelet had purple jewel beads.

"So you know how I told you I was busy during summer vacation because I was at that summer camp?" Lance cocked his head. Keith nodded. "Well we had an arts and crafts day and this was one of the crafts we did! I saw the red thread and it reminded me of you! And the purple beads reminded me of your eyes!"

"Lance," Pidge interjected his speech, "Uh no offence, but that sounds um really.... um... what's the word..."

"Like... he's in love?" Hunk asked.

"WHAT?" Both Lance and Keith spun their heads around at Hunk at the same time. "I'M NOT IN LOVE WITH KEITH HUNK WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT. HE'S A BOY!"

Hunk shrugged. "So? I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I think it's kind of nice."

Pidge groaned. "Well yes, Lance really does act like he has a crush -"

"IT'S NOT A CRUSH!"

"-but that wasn't the word I was looking for. I guess the word would be... passionate?"

Both boys ponder over that word for a bit. "Huh... passionate..." started Lance as he thought a little bit. "I guess you can say I was passionate when I was making that bracelet." Then he nodded and grinned at Keith. "Well then I hope you like my passionate bracelet."

Keith's cheeks went from fair to the same color of his red jacket. Then he crept a little smile that grew bigger to form into a laugh. It was a nice laugh, like a laugh that brought out pure sweetness. It was one of Lance's favorite things in the entire world, after his mama's cooking. "I do. Thank you Lance." He put the bracelet on which was followed by an ecstatic Lance and Hunk with a sighing, but smiling, Pidge in the background.

After a couple rounds of more Mario Kart (and Pidge beating everybody followed by many complaints and whining from Lance), the evening was slowly turning into night. Keith and Lance stood out the door as they watched Hunk and Pidge wave good-bye.

"Bye Keith!" Hunk called as he waved with both arms. "Good night and happy birthday!"

"See you tomorrow Keith!" Pidge called as she started heading towards Hunk. "Oh and happy birthday!" Keith and Lance waved back at them.

Lance cupped his hands and called out into the night at Pidge. "Pidge make sure you bring that link cable! I want to a Pokemon battle rematch!"

Pidge yelled even louder. "I know! I'm still gonna kick your butt Lance!"

"No you won't!"

"Yes I will!"

"No you won't!"

"Bye Lance!"

When they were out of sight into the dark streets, Keith looked at Lance. "Did Pidge beat you again in Pokemon?"

Lance groaned. "Yeah she always uses like the really normal ones? Like the ones that no one ever uses but she still beats me everytime! And I use legendaries! Legendaries can't be defeated! They're legendaries! So I'm gonna fight her again to show off my Groudon!"

Keith giggled knowing how competitive Lance always was. "Don't you need to go home Lance? It's getting really late."

Lance shrugged. "I will but I think your mom wanted some help cleaning up so I think I'll stay for a little bit."

Keith realized this as well and followed him to help clean up the mess from the party. As they cleaned the cake crumbs from the kitchen table, Keith's mother came over to him. "What did you think of your very first birthday party?"

Keith looked up at her as he put the paper towel filled with crumbs in the trash can. "It was so fun! I loved it so much!"

His mother chuckled. "I'm so glad, even if it was such a small party."

"Oh, but I don't mind it at all!" Keith exclaimed. "I just had a great time with my friends and that's good enough!"

"It is so nice you have wonderful friends that want to do it for you. Particularly that one." She nodded towards Lance who was putting away the game controlers. He seemed to absentmindedly put them in the basket below the TV when he got distracted by the collection of video game titles on the shelf. "He really wanted to throw this party for you. I think that is so sweet of him."

Keith blushed a little. "Yeah it is really nice." Then he looked up his mother to change the subject. "Could we do it again next year?"

She nodded with a smile. "Definitely and for many years after that too."

Keith glanced at the clock and realized it was a minute to 8'o clock. "Dad's almost home!" Then he looked at his mother. "I want to surprise him!"

"Oh! Alright." She leaned down on him and put a finger on her lips. "I won't tell him. I'll keep it a secret."

Keith ran over to Lance who finished putting away all the controlers. "Come on Lance! We're gonna surprise my dad!"

Lance wasn't sure what was happening but he went along with it anyway. They went into the nearest cupboard near the living room. It was big enough to fit two boys despite them being squished. "Woah that's cool you can see through this keyhole here!" Lance poked his finger through the keyhole that was no bigger than the length of two of his fingers. It was big enough that both of the boys could see through at the same time.

"Yeah it's pretty great," Keith agreed. "I can spy people through here if I want to." The front door opened and Keith shushed Lance despite Keith making most of the noise.

"I'm home." Keith's father took off his fedora and wiped his round glasses. His eyes looked extremely tired but certainly with lots of knowledge. Lance always thought his father looked like Keith but an older version and with shorter, slicker hair.

"Welcome home darling." His mother coming over to give him a kiss. Both Keith and Lance stuck their tongues out in disgust at the sight. "Your son and his friend had a wonderful birthday party today. You missed everything."

"A birthday party? Well where could the birthday boy be? There couldn't have been a party without the birthday boy."

"Well you're going to have to find him. That's what you get for missing out." She crossed her arms and had a sly smile as she knew exactly what the plan was.

Keith's father pretended to get really serious of searching for the boys. He crouched behind the couch and under the coffee table. Keith and Lance held their mouths to cover their childish giggling. "Keith? Where did you go? Where are you birthday boy?" The boys could feel their laughter taking total control of their body. The joy stopped when they heard a loud knock on the door. A deep menacing voice spoke from the other side.

"Kogane. Open up. It's the Galra."

The air in the room suddenly became dense and heavy. Lance didn't know what was going to happen but he started to feel uncomfortable. Keith's mother put her arms closer to her body with a worried look. His father got up and opened the door. Four people came through the door.

One of them seemed like a young teenager with a muscular build. He had stern eyes that looked so serious that reminded Lance of their student body president at school. Another was an older frowning woman with wrinkles like an old willow tree and long silvery hair that reached to her waist. Next to her was a bigger man with extremely large muscles. What frightened Lance the most the fact he was missing an eye. It looked like someone actually ripped the eye out of his face. Lastly was another man that was shorter than the first but looked just as strong. He had a square jaw and a scar that dragged across his left side of his face.

Lance could feel Keith tremble in fear and moving back as far as he could to the wall of the cupboard. Keith must have seen these people before, that's why he was so afraid.

"Hello Zarkon." Keith's father kept his composure together in front of the people in the room.

The man with the scar glared at him. "Where is the substance that you promised last week?"

Keith's father bit his lip. "I don't... have it."

Zarkon pursed his lips in disbelief. "You were supposed to have it ready by now. This is the third time that you failed to deliver it to us."

"Zarkon listen."Keith's father gave a heavy sigh. Lance could feel that Keith was holding on to his breath. "I really don't want to be a part of this anymore. Everyday, with the thought of knowing I have to give you these drugs to sell to the black market does not make me feel comfortable. I feel like I am hurting innocent people after knowing what they are used for. What we're doing, all of this, is just wrong."

"Don't forget who saved you from your debt Kogane!" sneered the older woman. She had a nasty voice that reminded Lance of a screeching crow. "If you back away now you will never have the happy family life you have now!"

"Shut up Haggar I was not talking to you!" Keith's father yelled at her.

The one eyed man pointed a gun at him. Keith squeaked and Lance quickly covered his mouth. "Don't talk to Haggar like that you son of a bitch!"

Zarkon put his hand on the one-eyed man's arm and lowered it. "Easy now Sendak it's okay." Sendak growled and put away the gun in his belt. "So you don't want to be part of this business anymore. That's a shame, because I really enjoyed working with you. I really thought we had such a great relationship Kogane. Not just a business relationship, but I really thought we were sparking into something more. Like a friendship."

"I would never become friends with someone like you. Let alone a mobster." Keith's father was firm on his words and his stance as he never moved from his spot.

Lance almost let out a gasp. These people... mobsters... as in gangsters? He only thought gangsters existed in the old movies his papa watched. He did not know they were actual real living people that existed in the real world.

Zarkon looked at him with the eyes of disappointment. He sighed. "Well what an awful feeling to know that the person you thought you were friends with turned out just being one sided. That's such... an awful feeling to have. And Kogane." He looked at Keith's father dead in the eyes. "I feel like shit."

It all happened so fast that Lance was not sure everything that happened was real.

Zarkon snapped his fingers.

Sendak brought out his gun.

Keith's mother and Keith screamed.

Sparks flew out of the barrel of the gun.

Keith's father falling backwards with blood and skin splattering at the back of his head.

Blood stained all over the floor and wall. Keith's father landed on the floor like a brick with blood trickling around him into a thick red pool underneath him.

Keith's mother screamed and sobbed at her husband's side. "Lucas?! Lucas! No Lucas!" She kept screeching at her husband's body as if he would wake up from the horror.

Keith was sobbing and hyperventilating uncontrollably. Lance tried to cover his eyes and mouth hoping to protect him from the sight, but Lance could not look away from the scene. It was so horrifying that it could only happen in movies. But this was happening in real life.

Sendak stepped closer to the body and pointed his gun at the screaming woman. "Bitch shut up!"

Multiple crackling shots fire at her with streaks of blood spraying from her body and painted the walls bright red.

Lance could feel Keith cry even harder and pulled his body closer to him. He put Keith's head on his shoulder and held him tightly hoping that would somewhat protect him.

Sendak walked over to his mother's body and fired more bullets.

"Sendak stop you're wasting bullets." Haggar put her hand on his arm to stop him from shooting.

Sendak spat. "I hated that bitch anyway."

Zarkon sighed. "You know, I had a different outcome in my head than this." He looked over at the father's body and kicked it out of his way. "Oh well. You got to do what you got to do." He looked over at the teenage boy who stood there emotionless the entire time. "Shiro, go around and see if you can find anything about that substance we were talking about."

Shiro nodded and started searching around the room. Lance could feel his heart beat even faster and Keith shaking even more than usual. He moved his head to look away and closed his eyes hoping that this was just a nightmare that he will wake up soon. This could not have been real. None of this had to be real. This had to be a scene from a movie. Things like this could not just happen in real life. Just a few hours ago they were having a fun party with smiles and laughter. A party to celebrate Keith with his friends and family. Now that would be taken away in just a matter of minutes. Lance thought that was not fair. That was not fair to take something so precious from someone like that. Especially from someone like Keith.

"Is this it?" Shiro came back with a small bottle in his hand.

Haggar glanced over it and nodded. "We got what we needed."

Sendak snorted. "What a fucking liar. And he said he didn't have it."

Zarkon moved his hands to signal to go as he headed out the door. "Alright let's go if there is nothing left here."

One by one, the gangsters went out the door with Shiro being the last one. He looked back and it seemed like he was staring straight at Lance and Keith. Lance held his breath thinking that maybe he did see them. But Shiro closed the door behind him.

After a few moments of dead air, Keith burst out of the cupboard door and ran to his parents. He stopped and stared at the pool of blood around the bodies of his parents. They did not move. They were stiff. But the blood from their bodies kept slowly leaking out. "Mom?" Keith spoke with a quiet voice. "Dad?"

Lance slowly got out of the cupboard and walked next to Keith. Blood made squishy sounds underneath his footsteps, staining his shoes and the hems of his pants.

Keith continued to look at his parents. "Mom... Dad...." He kneeled next to his father's body. Blood splashed staining all over his clothes. "Dad." He shook his body. More blood kept splashing Keith until he was covered all over his body. "Dad... dad..." The lifeless body gave no response. "Dad... Dad.... stop this... stop this dad... "The stench of blood was starting to fill the room making Lance's stomach fill with extreme sickness. "Dad!" Keith sobbed as moved over to his mother's body and started shaking her body with his bloodied hands. "Mom!" No response. Keith's voice started raising louder and higher in pitch to the point he was shrieking. "Mom! Mom stop this!"

And then Keith made a noise that sounded like screaming and sobbing. He continued to wail as he touched his bloodied forehead on his mother's. It was the most awful sound Lance ever heard in his life. The tears kept rolling from his eyes as if they would never stop. They fell onto his mother's face. She gave no reaction to the tears on her cheeks.

Lance crouched down and hugged Keith very tightly. The blood on Keith started to seep into Lance's clothing. But he did not care. He needed to hold Keith as a shield. He did not want to let him go. Keith turned around and looked at Lance still screaming and sobbing. What Lance could only describe from looking at Keith's face was that his heart hurt. This feeling was worse than having his lunch stolen by bullies or failing the PE exam. This feeling was much worse. It felt like Lance's heart was shattered into tiny pieces. It hurt so much to see Keith broken.

Lance placed his hand on Keith's head to lure him onto his shoulder for a place to cry. He continued to howl and cry into his shoulder making a big wet stain. He did not mind. He wanted him to. He held him even tighter when a thought came to him. He would not let anyone hurt Keith like this anymore. He would not let anyone make Keith cry again. Lance now realized he had to make Keith smile again.

"Keith." Keith's sobs softened a little. "I am going to protect you. I am going to make sure that you will never be hurt again."

He could feel Keith nodding slowly in his shoulder. He held him tight and hoped it would stay like this for a little longer. The night carried on with the sounds of sirens in the distance and Keith's muffled sobbing.


	2. An Unexpected Reunion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apparently I made some people cry from the last chapter I'm really sorry. Um, that is just kind of a set up of how the tone and atmosphere is going to be like so I apologize in advance ;u;
> 
> But the next two chapters will not be that sad. After that I am hoping it will get into that mafia action.
> 
> Sorry for the short chapter and slow update. I'm in Costa Rica now so I'll try to update as much as I can. 
> 
> I know it's post canon but I made Pidge the same ages as Lance, Keith, and Hunk.

Lance never saw Keith again after that night.

After the police took him away they told him that he needed to go home. He remembered how angry he was for taking Keith away. He kept yelling at them to bring him back but the police kept reassuring him that he will be safe. He remembered the frustration of the moment when didn't listen to him when they put Keith in the backseat of the car. He remembered that he started to run after the car. He remembered using as much of his leg strength as possible even if he knew it was going to tire him out. He remembered tearing up when Keith looked back at the car seat. His bloodied face was still in shock and stained with tears from crying so much. He remembered reaching out his hand to grab Keith but the police car was faster than him. He remembered his body closing in at its limit causing Lance to stop and take huge gasps of air. He put his hands on his knees to catch his breath and looked up. Keith's face was no longer visible. The car kept getting smaller and smaller in the distance. And just like that, he was gone.

The next day, their teacher announced that Keith would be moving to another school for family business. Just hearing those words pierced through Lance like a dart. He knew what happened that night. He was there. That was definitely far from the truth. Everyone else was wrong. Lance groaned at the thought and slammed his head down on his desk. He tried to hide his tears from the whispering classmates.

Many of the students knew that Lance was there when it happened. They heard tiny bits of information from the news like "a gang fight in a suburban neighborhood" and "mother and father dies, son survives." They would come up to Lance to ask for details but he would just ignore them. Even Pidge and Hunk couldn't go up to Lance and ask what happened because they would get the same answer.

The three friends sat around at the lunch table eating quietly. It was unusual for them to eat in peace. They would usually be talking loudly at each other about the latest video games or cartoons or make fun of the teachers. There would also be an exchange of food sharing around the table like a small family style meal. But today was different. 

It was also different because Keith wasn't there to sit with them anymore.

Then Lance broke.

Tears started leaking from his eyes as he ate his turkey sandwich. They started out as small tears and he quickly wiped away with his sleeve. But these tears could not stop. He tried so hard to stop but the tears wouldn't listen to his brain. Then he let out a small cry. Then he dropped his sandwich and collapsed to the ground weeping.

Pidge and Hunk ran over to his side almost immediately. Pidge kept shouting at him with worry if he was okay. Hunk volunteered to get the vice principal. Stares and whispers were coming from the entire cafeteria. But Lance paid no attention to it. He didn't care at this point. He didn't care what happened to him because he believed it was all his fault.

He grabbed Pidge's shirt and looked at her. "Pidge," he choked. Pidge  held him by the shoulders with the most support a ten year old can give. "I couldn't protect him. I couldn't protect him. I was there but I didn't do anything. I could have saved him. I could have made him smile again. I'm so weak-" followed by a chortle of more incoherent sobs. He fell to the ground once more but Pidge did her best to catch him.

Hunk came back with the vice principal and they carried him into the nurse's office. They laid Lance on the bed as he continued to sob. The images of that night kept flashing in his eyes. He wanted them to stop but he couldn't. The images kept replaying like a movie reel. They kept playing on one image in particular; the image of Keith crying with fat tears rolling down his small cheeks. 

Lance kept crying until he passed out from exhaustion.

____________________________

-8 years later-

"So you're a...space major?" The curly-haired girl took another sip of her cocktail glazing her bored eyes on her phone.

Lance rolled his eyes. He knew this date wasn't going to go anywhere if she would pay attention more to his gorgeous face than her boring phone. "No. There's no such thing as a 'space' major." He put air quotes on "space." "It's called astronomy."

"So basically space." She still didn't look up from her phone.

Lance didn't even give her a quick response after that. He was just too dumbfounded of how  _ amazing  _ this date was going. "Yeah. Sure. Space."

"That sounds.... vast." She started to text something on her phone.

Lance could feel the annoyance rising to his head. But he tried to keep his composure as a gentleman. This girl, who was probably called Vanessa, may be unengaging, but she was definitely curvy in all the right places.  "So what about you? What's your major?"

She scrolled through something on her phone. The dark bar was already getting more crowded as the night carried on. The dim lights that hung from the ceiling barely lit people's faces, making them seem like background extras. Lance hoped that he wouldn't have to stay so long because he knew there would be weird drunk people later in the night. "Psychology," she finally replied.

"Oh cool!" Lance put his arms behind his head. He tried to look as suave as possible with that cocky smile. "I took a class on psychology once. It was pretty cool they talked about the stuff that goes inside brain and all the chemicals that releases from the brain to your body-"

"That's neurology." She took another big gulp from her cocktail then went back to her phone.

Lance slumped, realizing how much of an idiot he was. "Oh... right..."

"Anyway." She got up and finally put her phone away in her purse. "I just realized I have a lot of homework to do so I'm gonna go." Lance looked at her in disbelief as she put on her jacket. "Anyway I had a lot of fun. Maybe we can see each other again." That meant never. "Bye Luke."

She hurried out the door. Lance continued to watch her through the bar's windows and into the streets. He looked around to see if anyone just saw what just happened. But everyone else was doing their own thing. He groaned into his hands. Another online dating disaster.

He weeded his way out through the crowded bar and out into the big city streets. With nothing left to do, Lance started to head home. He got out his phone to text Hunk what just happened.

**Hunk:** so how did it go ;)

**Lance:** fuckin terrible

**Hunk:** aw what happened

**Lance:** she was glued to her phone like she didnt give a shit!!! she probably makes love to it

**Hunk:** well i mean... it does vibrate so....

**Lance:** HUNK

**Hunk:** SORRY SORRY LOL

**Lance:** im pissed man she was hot too she had really nice curves i could have had that she called me luke when she left too!

**Hunk:** there's more to life than boning women lance because 1. that makes you look sexist 2. there's food

**Lance:** ok first off dudes are awesome too ok and second you are totally right!!! do we still have that pizza in the fridge?

**Hunk:** it's all yours! you deserve it!

**Lance:** wait you didnt eat it yet?

**Hunk:** oh i forgot to tell you im at pidge's place we are working on an engineering presentation thats due tomorrow. guess who is the procrastination master

**Lance:** do i have to guess

**Hunk:** oh no i did my part pidge just screwed up

**Lance:** wow way to let the team down pidge

**Hunk:** ill tell them you said that

**Lance:** WTF DONT

Lance chuckled at the texts when he realized he was already at the door step to their apartment complex. He greeted the night guard and made his way to the elevator. After pressing the button to the third floor he went back to his phone.

**Hunk:** pidge just said that you already let the team down by existing

**Lance:** WOW WHAT A PIECE OF SHIT

**Hunk:** pidge says at least i'm not actual shit like someone i know

The elevator door opened and Lance walked straight into his apartment. It was convenient that the elevator was directly across his and Hunk's place. Lance got the keys as he continued to text.

**Lance:** tell them that their sass is not ok right now bc im a broken man

**Lance:** btw how late are you staying

Lance walked into the apartment. He glanced over the room in disgust when he realized that his laundry was still all over the place. It looked like the entire living room had went through a clothes bomb.

**Hunk:** idk i may have to stay over because you know pidge the perfectionist

**Lance:** ok thats cool just ya know stay safe and shit

**Lance:** also im gonna eat the whole pizza bc im starving i didnt eat anything at the bar

**Hunk:** ok you do that btw make sure you clean the damn place up

Lance laughed as he opened the fridge. As if he was going to clean it up now. Right now he needed some healing time. That time involved himself, pizza, and Netflix.

Lance took out the four slices of pizza when he glanced over the left side of the fridge. There were two tall beer bottles that were unmarked. He set the pizza aside and texted Hunk.

**Lance:** hunk did you make more booze???

**Hunk:** oh yeah... pls dont touch that thats for pike they will kill me if i dont bring it to them tomorrow

Lance face palmed. He couldn't believe Hunk was still doing this swig business with the "frat-iest" of all fraternities in the entire campus, Pi Kappa Alpha or "Pike." Hunk, the food specialist, made amazing creations throughout the years. It wasn't until the day when Pidge somehow got a hold of vodka that Hunk started a side job as an underground mixologist. And he was a pretty damn good one too. The president of Pike discovered this on accident when he drank out of Lance's cup at a house party. He demanded to know where the drink came from which resulted Lance blurting out everything. Hunk wasn't happy about his friend ratting him out on his secret, but the frat boys really did have a lot of money. So Lance could understand why Hunk would want to do this. But he noticed that Hunk would spend about 80% more time on making drinks and 20% on everything else including his studies.

**Lance:** dude.... please tell them that you cant do this anymore they are like using you

**Hunk:** look ill deal with it tomorrow ok i gtg pidge is getting pissed

Lance put his phone in pocket. He heated up the pizza and went to start up Netflix. He tried to find something that would probably numb his mind over what happened tonight. Not a romantic comedy. But not a horror movie either because Lance hated horror movies. Without making up his mind he decided to continue watching Boardwalk Empire. He was almost done with season 4 anyway, he might as well.

The microwave chimed that his pizza was ready. As he walked over to the pizza he heard a series of obnoxious knocks on his door.

"Hey Hunky man! Are you there!"

"Shit must be the Pike guys," Lance muttered. It's already 11pm, why would they be here at this time of night?

Lance let out a heavy sigh  when he opened the door. Two muscular frat boys in their stupid jersey jackets towered over the skinny olive-skinned boy. They looked like the stereotypical party boys that anyone a mile away could see that. "Hunk's not here. Please leave a message after the beep."

"We just came by to pick up some of that Crazy Love."

Lance squinted at them. "Crazy... Love... is that like... a porno?"

The frat boys roared with laughter. The one in front with a baseball cap patted Lance's shoulder a little too hard that he yelped in pain. "Dude what the fuck no. The booze man! We came here to pick up some booze! We are already running low for our party tonight."

It must be sad that all these guys ever look forward to is parties, alcohol, and sex every single night. Lance didn't know how these guys were ever functional human beings.

"Um Hunk told me he was going to give it to you guys tomorrow."

"No man we need it now," the other frat boy demanded. His nose piercing was almost as big as his nostril. " we got some chicks that are dying to have some of Crazy Love because they knew we were the only house on campus that would have that stuff."

Lance crossed his arms and stood up taller. They were already starting to get on his nerves. "Okay that's just wrong. That stuff belongs to Hunk and quite frankly I don't like the way you're using him as your alcohol making machine. Do you know how much stress you give him? And not only that you don't even let us into your parties anymore even though he still makes it for you guys?"

"That's because you almost set the living room on fire." They stepped closer to Lance that they were almost touching noses. Lance suddenly felt very small like an ant. "Remember?"

Lance chuckled nervously. "That was because I thought it was perfume and not a lighter-look I was super wasted that night okay that was an accident!"

The cap boy stepped even closer to Lance that he could smell the alcohol seeping from his breath. "Where is the booze?"

"L-look man I really don't know! I don't even know if the stuff in the fridge is even it!"

"The fridge?"

Oh shit.

_ Way to fuck it up Lance,  _ he thought to himself.

The cap boy looked over at his partner and then looked back at Lance. "Look man if you don't give it to us now we're just going to come in and get it."

"But that's breaking and entering! That's illegal!"

The boys laughed and snorted. Lance concluded they have to go to be wasted. "Does it look like we give a shit? We deal with the police all the time man!"

Lance still didn't move but the frat boys kept inching closer. He was ready to barf in their faces if he kept inhaling the reeking alcoholic breaths.

"If you ain't gonna budge we're coming in," cap boy said finally following a steam of breath.

Lance coughed at the stench and dropped to his knees to save himself from the stink bomb. The frat boys kicked him over as they scrambled into his apartment.

"Get out!" Lance quickly got up as soon as they opened the refrigerator door. He grabbed the boy who was closest to the door to pull him away. But he was met with a punch in the stomach. He was sent flying backwards into the wall and crashing into the shoe rack. Smelly shoes fell over Lance as the frat boys came closer to give him another blow. Tonight was really not going well for Lance.

He was ready to receive another hit when something that looked like a shiny black boot kicked the piercing boy who knocked the cap boy down like dominos. Lance blinked to register what was going on. A slender young man dressed with a long black coat and hair that looked like a mullet stood in front of him. Lance couldn't tell what the man looked like because of the black mouth mask that covered the lower half of his face.

The two angry frat boys got up and started to throw punches at the new guy but he swiftly dodged all of their attacks. The cap boy threw a punch at him only to be countered by mullet head grabbing his arm, flipping him, and slamming him hard on the ground on his back. The piercing boy was about to grab his waist but the slender man lifted his leg and gave him a fast roundhouse kick sending the frat boy crashing into the dining table.

Lance dropped his jaw. This smaller, random guy that  suddenly came into his apartment just took down two stocky football players in one swift motion.  _ He must be some kind of spy or martial artist,  _ Lance decided.

The two defeated frat boys groaned as they got up. The piercing boy rubbed his cheek with blood coming out of his mouth. He went over to his buddy to support him on his shoulders. "Who the fuck are you?" he stammered.

The mysterious man pointed at the door. "Get out."

"You can't tell us what to do!"

The man lifted the flap of his coat to put his hand on his hip. The boys suddenly screamed and backed away even more. Lance peered over and realized why they yelped.  _ The man had a gun on his belt. _

"I said get out."

Then the two boys ran for their lives to the nearest exit towards the stairs followed by girlish screaming. Lance didn't move from his spot with the dirty shoes all over him. He was too stiff to move after what he just witnessed. Everything happened way too fast, but yet so much just happened.

When the wailing from the frat boys finally dissipated, Lance finally exploded. He got up quickly and the shoes fell to the floor. He started yelling at the man standing in front of him. "WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON? WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU? WHY THE FUCK DID YOU DO THAT?"

The black-clothed man closed the door silently. Then he turned to Lance. "You're Lance right?"

Lance scoffed. "What if I'm not?"

Even though he couldn't see most of his face, the man squinted his eyebrows with disbelief."Well are you?"

"Look I'm not entitled to tell you anything because a STRANGER," Lance could feel his blood boiling in his head and his voice raising in volume, "SUDDENLY CAME INTO MY APARTMENT AND STARTED BEATING UP DUDES. IN MY APARTMENT. AND YOU HAVE A GUN? WHY THE FUCK DO YOU HAVE A GUN? I COME BACK FROM A SHITTY DATE, TWO FRAT BOYS BARGE INTO MY FRIDGE, AND NEO FROM THE MATRIX STARTS MAULING THEM. I'M VERY STRESSED RIGHT NOW OKAY. I WAS NOT EXPECTING TONIGHT TO GO LIKE THIS. I JUST WANT MY PIZZA AND MY NETFLIX AND CHILL."

The man crossed his arms and rolled his eyes. "Calm down okay, that sucks you had a bad night. Just answer me. Are you Lance McClain or not?"

Lance threw his arms up. He was so done. "Yes! I am! Congratulations you found me! You win!"

The man put his hand on his forehead and started to rub his temples. Lance noticed there was a red stringed bracelet that was hanging from his wrist. It looked like any other normal bracelet but Lance felt like he had seen it before somewhere.

"Wow you actually grew up to be an annoying asshole."

Lance scowled at him. "Way to make a fine introduction buddy I'll let you know I have an amazing personality." Then he stopped and realized the man said something weird. "Wait. 'Grew up?' What d you mean by that? Have we met before?"

The man set his gaze over to Lance. His eyes were an interesting color of purple. The only person Lance knew that had purple eyes was-

"Yeah I know it's been like what? 8 years?" He pulled down his mouth mask to reveal the rest of his face. Lance quickly covered his mouth when he let out a loud gasp.

_ There's no fucking way. _

"It's me Keith."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: Pike is a real fraternity and when I was in college they were notorious for being the stereotypical party boys. Also if you're from Pike and you're reading this I hope I didn't offend you in any way orz 
> 
> But now hopefully we will see what happened to Keith and his development yay


	3. A Reconciled Plan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late update I'm finally back in the states. Updates may be slow because I start work tomorrow orz. 
> 
> Thanks for all the comments and kudos! It really makes me feel happy that there's people that are interested in this kind of story! I know it's not everyone's cup of tea because I'm trying to aim for a mature dark story. So for those that are wanting for some relationship heavy content, I mean you will get it? But it's not any time soon... so sorry about that... but there's hints here and there I think. 
> 
> Also here's the chapter I like to call the "exposition dump" chapter.

**Lance:** ok dude your not gonna believe this but remember keith?? from like years ago??? yeah hes sitting right in front of me right now in our kitchen

 **Hunk:** KEITH??? WHAT??? NO WAY?? HOW?? IS HE OKAY???

"Who are you texting?" Lance quickly looked up from his phone to see Keith leaning back on the chair cross-legged. He pushed the place of pizza a few inches towards Lance, refusing to have any.

Lance put his phone face down. "Hunk. You remember him?" He pointed at the plate of pizza to motion if Keith wanted any. Keith shook his head. Lance eagerly grabbed a slice of pizza and started to go for it. "He was the big guy in our group-"

"Did you just tell him I am here? You shouldn't have done that. Stop texting him immediately." Keith said dryly.

"Okay, okay Mr. Bossy," Lance muttered but Keith didn't seem to hear him. Lance stared at him with pizza full in his mouth. He may have grown up and they haven't seen each other for many years, but Lance knew this was not the same Keith from before. The Keith he knew was a shy boy with the sweetest smile anyone can ever see. This Keith wasn't like that anymore. He grew up into a handsome young man but with an expression that was brooding and cold.

Of course, Lance knew why. But it still took him aback.

"Keith." Lance set aside the half eaten pizza slice. He put his hands on his lap and looked down, thinking of the right words to say. Then he looked at him straight into his purples irises. "What happened to you?" He spoke those words in almost a whisper as he tried to contain the emotional baggage in his heart.

Keith furrowed his eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

"You know after the police took you away. Like where did they take you? Where did you go? What happened between those years and now? And where did you learn how to fight like that did you go train with some master in the mountains? How did you get a gun?" Lance took a long sigh to ask the more serious question. "Are... you okay?"

There was a silence in between. Keith didn't budge from his position. Lance started to get cold chills afraid he might have offended him some way.

Keith finally broke the silence. "You... ask way too many questions."

"Of course I would ask lots of questions! I haven't seen you in 8 years!"

"We can play catch up at some other time," Keith interrupted. Lance scoffed. He couldn't believe the same sweet kid became a rude asshole. "I was looking for you because I needed to ask you something."

Lance looked at him questioningly. Even though they hadn't spoken to each other for a long time, he would still do anything for Keith. But this was not the way to greet a friend you haven't seen in a long time. "Uh...okay. What is it?"

Keith repositioned himself to straighten his back against the chair. "Do you know anyone named Takashi Shirogane? I tracked him that he was at this school but I couldn't find any more details after that because a lot of his information online is confidential. But I also found out you were at this school too so I wanted to know if you knew him. Even better if you knew him personally."

He reached into his coat pocket and handed Lance a photograph. It was a photo of a good looking man in a nice suit with a wine glass in hand talking to a couple of women at a bar. His face was chiseled nicely in a square-ish definitions. His hair was particularly interesting as he had a black undercut but the top part of his hair was white. Though it's subtle in the photo, but a scar lined almost perfectly horizontal across his face.

Lance felt a slight twinge in his heart. He was so happy to see Keith again but it felt so disappointing that Keith only came for a favor. It still didn't back him down for being there for Keith.

Lance glanced at the photo until something in his mind clicked. "Oh! That's Shiro!" Keith sat up straighter as Lance's exclamation brought his attention more."I mean he wants to be called Shiro. He's in my astrophysics class. I mean we don't really talk we might have said things like 'hi what's up' that kind of thing. I also think he might be on some sports team because I've seen him hang out with some jocks and he's hella ripped. But I don't know him personally but he seems like a cool dude." He tried to keep his composure to make it look like he wasn't bothered by Keith's request. "Why do you need to find him?"

Keith licked his lips and closed his eyes as if he was trying to find the right words to answer. Lance continued to eat his pizza. "He was the teenager that was there on that night."

Lance stopped mid-chew. He knew exactly what Keith was talking about. Somewhere in the depths of Lance's memory he kept that incident repressed. He was suddenly having quick images of  the memory resurfaced of things he didn't want to remember. The menacing looking men. The crackling gun shots. The bloodied room. Keith's crying. Most of all Keith's crying.

Then Lance remembered that there was indeed a teenager that night. He remembered that the teenager didn't speak during the visit. Lance's eyes widened when he realized the striking similarities between the teen in his memories and the photo in his hand.

"No... you're saying this guy," he pointed at the photo, "Shiro, a totally normal guy, is… a gangster?"

Keith let out an exasperated sigh. "That's exactly what I'm saying." He leaned in a little closer as his serious gazed remained unchanged. "Lance," he started, "Shiro is part of the Galra family. The same family that murdered my parents."

Lance suddenly felt the air around him grow cold. The Galra family. He had heard about this notorious mafia on the news a couple of times throughout his life. They always involved stories of drug warfare or another murder. In every single story it always ended with the reporters talking about the members of the mafia following a series of photos and mugshots. Those were the kind of stories that Lance usually glanced over because he didn't want to get involved in something so serious.

But he would have never thought he might have to be. He never thought in his entire life that he would get involved with the mafia and he wanted to stay that way. It still felt uncomfortable knowing that he was there on the night when the family came into Keith's life and that he knew someone from said family.

"So what do you plan on doing with Shiro?" Lance asked nervously.

Keith rested his chin on his hands. "I want to know why they took my parents away from me. I want to fulfill my long revenge on them."

Lance closed his eyes briefly. He was afraid of his answer of the question he was going to ask next. He opened his eyes and looked at him."What would that revenge be?"

Keith made a finger gun and imitated firing a handheld revolver. "I want them to experience what they did to my parents. I've been planning and waiting for this moment for so long." He let out a small laugh. "So you wanted to know what happened to me all these years? Now you know. Years of planning this revenge."

Lance felt himself short of breath. This was so unreal. The lovely sweet Keith that he knew who had his whole world shattered would come into his life again declaring his dark intentions was almost too much for Lance to bear. He wanted their reunion to be like something out of a sappy reunion movie of lovers or long lost friends. But this didn't turn out the way Lance thought of at all.  

"And that's where you come in." Keith interrupted his thoughts and Lance snapped back up. "That's a good thing that you know Shiro. I want you to arrange a meeting for us."

Lance could not believe what he just heard. "Wh-What?" he stammered.

"I want you to have Shiro and I meet-"

"No! I know! I heard you" As much as he cherished and missed Keith, there was no way he was going to get involved with the mafia and another chance of getting Keith hurt again. "I don't want to do something like that! I mean, yeah you're my friend, but that's just too crazy! They are the mafia!" He stood up and pointed at Keith. "Just you being here is crazy! You come in beating up frat boys and now you're telling me Shiro is part of the mafia and you want to go on this rampage murdering spree! You-you're-" Lance stammered, "you want to kill people?"

Keith raised an eyebrow looking at Lance as if he was crazy. "Yeah so? This won't be my first job."

Lance took a minute to soak that in. Not his first job? That could only mean...

"Keith... you've killed people before?"

"Lance I'm not the naive little kid from the past anymore. I dropped out of high school because I wanted this more than anything. I spent most of my teen years on the streets doing anything I can do to support myself. And yes, that included taking on jobs that involved taking out people." He patted the gun on his belt.

Lance let out a horrified gasp.

"But if you're not going to help me with this simple task, fine. I can always ask Hunk or Pidge or someone else that may know him. But I wanted to ask you because..." Keith started trailing off before he found his words again, "I feel like you're the only person I can trust."

Lance held in his breath and let out an exasperated groan. He set his forehead on the dining room table. Never would he have thought in his life that Keith would come back into his life. But he never would have thought Keith would only come back for a favor. A favor that involved bloodshed.

_But you still want to make him smile right?_

Lance turned his head slightly to peek at Keith. Even though years had passed by, somewhere in Lance's heart, the same feelings stayed the same. The feeling of wanting to hold Keith and tell him that everything was alright. The feeling of making Keith feel everything was safe in the world. The feeling of wanting to protect Keith forever.

If that is what it would take to protect Keith, then he would have to do what Keith wished.

"Okay." Keith flinched a little in surprise as he watched Lance slowly stand up. "I'll do it."

Keith squinted not believing him. "Are you sure? This is a really dangerous job are you sure you want to do this?"

Lance shot him a frustrated look. "Look if it's going to make you fulfill your savageness I'll do it! I'll find Shiro and make sure you guys meet up or whatever!" He let out a long sigh to calm himself. "If it will make you happy again, I'll do it," he muttered.

Keith looked up at Lance with the same familiar violet eyes that he knew. They were still the same shimmering color. "Thank you," he said, "thank you so much Lance."

Lance felt himself blushing and scratched his head in embarrassment. "Yeah don't thank me yet buddy, I haven't done the job yet."

Keith sighed and got up from the chair. "Well honestly, it's not that hard of a job. All you have to do is find out a way for Shiro and I to meet at a friendly social situation. Then after that, you're free to go."

"Free to go? Excuse me?" Lance crossed his arms. "I'm not leaving you. You asked me to get into something dangerous there is no way in hell you're getting rid of me."

"Lance, according to your standards, I already live a dangerous life. I'm what the media consider me as a thug."

"Well I'm not going to have you go through the mafia alone! Not like this!"

"God what are you my mom?!" Keith caught himself and stepped back looking down. Lance cringed as he didn't want his anger to boil even more. He knew there was no way to make a come back for that.

Keith sighed. He let his fingers run through his long mullet. Lance held his breath when he saw the red bracelet. The same one he gave him many years ago. "You still... have that..." he breathed.

Keith ignored him. "When is the next time you see Shiro?"

Offended that Keith didn't hear him say anything, Lance tried to keep his composure. "Uh tomorrow morning-"

"Perfect," Keith interrupted him, "find out any information about him and then we can work from there." He glanced over at the microwave clock to see its glowing green numbers saying it’s 2:30. "It's late. We will start this tomorrow."

Keith walked past Lance as he stammered. "Wait! What are you doing?"

Keith pushed the dirty clothes and other miscellaneous objects off of the futon couch. "I'm trying to get some rest. You should too." He laid himself down on the couch and crossed his arms across his body. He shut his eyes.

"What!" Lance exclaimed. He ran over and shook him. "You can't just sleep on people's couches without asking! Keith what the fuck!"

But Keith didn't budge. He kept his eyes shut but Lance wasn't sure if he was truly asleep or trying hard to ignore Lance.

Lance got up and made an annoying groan. He watched Keith's steady breathing. Watching his body move back and forth from his heavy breathing must have meant that Keith was tired all around. Lance couldn't blame him. He couldn't imagine everything that Keith had to go through that led to his goal of wanting to take out the people that took his family away.

There was no reason to get mad at him for having him sleep on the couch anyway. Deep down, Lance was almost ecstatic to see Keith in his apartment, finally safe and sound.

Lance grabbed his phone to take a picture of the sleeping Keith and sent it to Hunk.

_____________________

Keith was still on the couch lying in the same position the next morning. There were also no signs of Hunk coming back in the apartment. Lance knew all of this because he always got up at 6 in the morning to do his beauty skincare routine.

He watched Keith as he ate his breakfast consisting of eggs and waffles. All of the events that happened last night was a blur  to Lance. He still find it hard to believe that all of that happened in a span of hours. The person that he cherished the most was finally asleep on his couch. But he still was tasked to do a dangerous job for him. Is this what they meant with the saying of "you'd do anything for love?"

Lance shook his head. That was a dumb thought. He glanced back at the peaceful Keith. He found himself smiling in relief at the sight, only to cringe when he realized he was probably being a creep.  

He left a plate of eggs and waffles on the table as he headed out the door. He still found himself looking back at Keith. He just didn't want that feeling to go away. This may be the last time he would see Keith in such a peaceful state. He hoped that after all of this was over, Keith would finally be at peace.

Lance closed the door behind him.

______________________

Shiro flashed his charming smile at the Pike guys that were crowding all around him. They laughed at his witty remarks. The sound of the laughter attracted pretty sorority girls that laughed along with them. Anyone could see that Shiro was definitely a crowd pleaser with people hanging around at his side. Anyone with that infectious charming personality could attract people from miles away.

Lance sulked on the other side of the hall. He watched in frustration as he tried to figure out how to approach someone that was way out of his league. All he had to do was get him and Keith to meet up. But how does one do that? Saying “hey my friend who is a bloodthirsty assassin wants to kill your family because you guys killed his” doesn’t work out especially on the first meeting.

“Hey Lance.”

Lance turned to his side to see Pidge’s brother Matt. Matt gave a worried look. “Woah! Are you okay? Did someone piss you off?” He pointed at Lance’s eyebrows.

Lance must have thought so hard that he probably had a scary face that looked like he was mad at everyone. He rubbed his temples and try to hide his frustration with a cocky smile. “No! No I’m good! Sorry about that I was thinking about something. What’s up man?”

Matt laughed. It was so uncanny how Pidge and Matt had similar laughs in terms of how bubbly it sounded. Their similar faces, hairstyles, and glasses even made people question if they were twins. “I’m good!” He exclaimed. “I just wanted to know why you were making that horrible face at Shiro.”

Lance winced. “What… are you talking about?”

Matt gave a sly smile. It was so terrifying to see how that smile was similar to Pidge’s whenever they wanted to give Lance a hard time. “I’m not dumb you know. I could tell you were looking at Shiro from here. Are you jealous that he’s popular?”

“What! No!  I wasn’t think about that at all! I just want to know how to go up to Shiro and ask him for something-” Lance covered his mouth before realizing what he just revealed to Matt.

But Matt just laughed again. “You’re hilarious man! Come on, I’ll introduce him to you.”

Matt took Lance’s wrist as they started heading into the crowded hall. “Wa-wait!” Lance stammered, “how do you know Shiro?”

Matt glanced back smiling. “Oh we met at orientation and we kind of somehow hit it off. He was the first friend I made in college. Even though we kind of went separate ways we still hang out.”

The fraternity boys and sorority girls finally made their way out as they waved Shiro goodbye. He smiled and waved back before turning to Matt and Lance. “Hey Matt! How’s it going?” He waved at him.

“Nothing much, just making money and maintaining Philosophy as usual.” Matt greeted Shiro with the grab and pat on the back handshake that men tend to do. Lance was knew that Matt was cooler than him but he didn’t know he was _that_ cool.  Matt looked back at Lance. “And I assume you guys have met before right?”

Shiro looked at Lance for a moment and nodded. He smiled at him. Lance thought he was going to diss him off. “Yeah! You’re Lance McClain right? You’re in my astrophysics class!” He brought his hand to his chin as if he was pondering. “You sit… two rows in front of me? Or three?”

“I’m in the very front,” Lance boasted as he tried to stand confidently. “I’m quite honored that you know of me.”

Shiro chuckled. “Well anyone would after trying to pine after that handsome substitute with astronomy pick up lines.”

Lance felt his face flushing as Matt turned around with his mouth hanging open. “Oh my god Lance! Did you really?”

Lance groaned into his hands. “I thought people would have forgotten that already I was a naive freshman okay!”

“But you are a freshman,” Matt remarked.

“Shut up Matt.” Lance buried his face deeper into his hands as Matt howled with laughter.

“Oh it was definitely a memorable day, but I think lots of people really started to enjoy that class after that,” said Shiro trying to lighten the mood.

Lance glanced up from his hands pouting. “I wanted to have a  great reputation okay, I didn’t want to have the reputation as a thirsty hoe-”

“But Pidge said that’s what you basically are,” Matt piped in.

“DON’T LISTEN TO WHAT PIDGE SAYS ESPECIALLY THE FACT THAT I’M A THIRSTY HOE.” Lance realized that he shouted pretty loud that caused people around him started to stare at him. He groaned back into his hands as Matt and Shiro laughed.

“It’s all good, I appreciate that you’re being honest.” Shiro smiled at Lance and he suddenly felt a little bit lighter. “Speaking of picking up on people,” he raised his eyebrows, “I’m actually going to a dinner party to celebrate the opening of a new restaurant. I was told to invite as many people as possible. It’s going to be like a fancy dinner party with people dressed up, really good food, expensive wine and all of that.” He glanced at both Lance and Matt briefly. “If you guys are interested in that sort of thing.”

Matt nodded at him. “Thanks for the invite! I think I’d like to go! Maybe Pidge would like to come along as well! Believe it or not, they know way more about wines than I do.” He looked over at Lance with a smug. “You gonna go Lance? I’m sure there would be hot dudes and girls everywhere.”

He nudged Shiro with a smirk and Shiro nodded.“Oh yes, I’m sure there will be attractive people everywhere.”

Lance scoffed. “Thanks for the set up Matt but I think I’m good with my natural good looks and irresistible charms.” Matt laughed even harder. Then Lance suddenly had a thought and turned to Shiro. “So is it alright if I can invite a couple of more friends?”

Shiro shrugged. “Sure why not? The more the merrier.”

Lance felt his heart beat faster in excitement. He finally got what Keith asked him to do. Hopefully this will make things go according to plan. But in the back of his mind, he knew Keith still had dark intentions to kill Shiro. Lance tried not to think of it and put on a fake smile. “Great! I’ll tell them about it!”

“When and where is it going to be Shiro?” Matt asked.

Shiro got out his phone to look up the details. “It is… going to be two days from now at 7:30 pm… on 1st and Willow. The restaurant is called The Royal Lions. You guys need any help getting there?”

“I should be fine I can drive there.” Matt then turned to Lance. “You need a ride too Lance?”

“I think…” Lance started. He wasn’t sure if Keith would be alright going with Matt. They never interacted as much a kids and he wouldn’t know how Matt would react if he found out that Keith was only going there to get close to Shiro. But it wasn’t in any form of friendly intention. Lance couldn’t imagine Matt’s reaction if he brought someone that only wanted to kill his friend. “I’ll be okay. Thanks for asking Matt.”

_________________

“Come on are you kidding me!” Lance opened the door to his apartment to be bombarded with video game shooting sounds and roars of Pidge’s laughter and a complaining Hunk. “This is no fun! I want to be on Keith’s team next time!”

“Well hi guys,” Lance greeted with a slight annoyance in his voice. Hunk, Pidge and Keith were crotched over the small television playing Overwatch. From the looks of it, it seemed that they were playing on teams. For some reason, Lance felt left out that he wasn’t there to play with them.

“Hey Lance!” Hunk greeted back. Then he frowned. “You didn’t clean the living room.”

Lance glared at him. “Well I was busy last night okay. You know what happened.”

“Yeah Keith told us everything,” said Pidge still looking at the television and arranging the game’s settings. Lance glanced over at Keith who also kept staring at the television without any facial expression. He wondered how much he told them. Keith did say that he trusted Lance, but how much did he? Did he have some kind of trust in Lance that he didn’t have with Hunk and Pidge?

“How long have you guys been here? Didn’t you have some kind of project to do?”

“Yeah and it turned out pretty great.” Pidge looked over at Hunk. “Didn’t it Hunk?”

“No!” shouted Hunk, “ I was shaking like crazy! I kept messing up and saying the wrong terms I felt like an idiot. Who says hydro-logs?”

Lance rolled his eyes and sat down next to Keith. “I’m sure you guys did fine, thanks to Pidge’s genius-ness.” Pidge gave a thumbs up and clicked their tongue. “So you guys basically have been bonding without me?”

Pidge looked at Lance questioningly. “Bonded? We just found Keith eating food on the couch and we all kind of just lost our shit because we didn’t expect anyone to be here let alone Keith!”

“You should have seen Pidge, they just lost their shit and cried and hugged Keith like a baby,” Hunk snickered.

Pidge glared at him and then continued. “But we kind of caught up and now here we are playing Overwatch.” Pidge grabbed another controller and gave it to Lance. “You want in?”

Lance put the controller on the coffee table. “Maybe later. First things first.” He turned to Keith with his hand on his cheek leaning into him. Keith moved slightly back. “I finally set us up a date.”

Hunk and Pidge snorted their laughter. “You guys are what?!” Pidge exclaimed.

Lance angrily barked back at them. “Not like that you assholes I was trying to be cool here-!”

“What happened?” Keith asked firmly.

Lance took deep breaths and went back to his cool pose. “So I went up to Shiro and was like ‘ Lance you’re so cool I’m going to invite you to this dinner party at this fancy restaurant downtown.’” And then I asked him ‘sweet man, can I bring friends?’ And he was like ‘sure thing man!’ So we’re going and we’re going to be dressed up and then you and him can talk all the time you want.”

Pidge twitched their nose. “Sounds fake, but okay,” they muttered. Hunk snickered again as he got up and went into the kitchen.

Lance spat back at Pidge. “Look if you don’t believe me ask Matt he got invited too! He was there and he said he wanted to take you too.”

Pidge let out a cheer with their arms up and Keith straightened up. “What’s this restaurant called?”

“It was like… Lions? Something to do with lions.”

Keith blinked at him. “The Royal Lions?”

Lance clicked his tongue and pointed at him. “Yeah that’s the one.”

Keith moved his finger down slowly and then coughed. “That restaurant… is owned by the Alteas.”

Lance raised his eyebrows. “The… Alteas?”

“Isn’t that a gang or something?” Pidge asked.

Keith nodded. “Yeah. They’re Galra’s main enemy.”

“What!” Lance exclaimed. He put his hands on his head trying to hold in the stress. “You’re saying that Shiro wants us to come with him to their enemy’s lair to have a drink with him?” He shook his head. “No way is that happening!”

“Then you don’t have to come,” Keith said back. “I only asked you to find a way for me and Shiro to get together. It will still be dangerous but… this is a good opportunity. This is a good way for me to talk to Shiro. In fact this may be the only chance to get close to him.” He nodded at Lance. “Thank you Lance.”

Lance felt his face get red as he tried to look cool by sitting up straighter. Hunk, who was in the kitchen, came out, “If you’re asking if I want to go no thanks. I don’t want to be close to any gang because that ain’t the life for me.” He then looked at Keith. “No offense Keith.”

Keith shrugged. “No worries.”

Hunk went back to the kitchen and brought out some mugs and a tall unmarked wine glass. The liquid inside looked shimmery and sparkly like the stars in the sky. “You guys want some?”

“Wait Hunk,” Lance started. “Isn’t that for Pike?”

“Don’t worry I got their stuff saved somewhere else. I was kind of saving up for you guys because this is a new concoction I just came up with. I had an idea of making it like a sparkling marble flavored-like vodka, but it’s not really vodka. So, I wanted you guys to try it first to see if you like it.”

“I did not see that in the fridge.”

“Well Lance, I don’t have to tell you everything where I put.” Hunk placed the mugs down and started pouring. “Go ham guys.”

Everyone grabbed a mug and took a few sips. Lance coughed out the strong bitter taste but the alcohol hit him hard in the back of the throat. Pidge let out a whoop. “Dang Hunk that is smooth! You should really sell this stuff!” They let out a happy sigh as they drank some more. “Oh man this feel so good.”

Keith sniffed and took a long sip. His eyes lit up at the taste. “This is…. Really good….”

Hunk laughed and put his hands on his hips with pride. “I’m glad to hear that! Thanks Keith!”

Keith took another sip. He closed his eyes and smacked his lips in thought. Then he turned to Hunk. “How much more do you have of this stuff?”

Hunk thought for a moment. “Like two more bottles. Why?”

“I’m going to bring one as a present to Shiro.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer I don't know anything about overwatch don't kill me. 
> 
> Next chapter is when the real mafia stuff happen.... hopefully... maybe.... OvO


	4. A Lovely Dinner Party

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the lateness. My work is starting and also my anxiety kicks in sometimes to come online. But I actually want to make it a goal to finish this! For those that are reading thank you all for your support!
> 
> I also want to make it clear that this chapter is going to be pretty violent. If you are not okay with that kind of stuff, just be aware. 
> 
> Thanks for sticking with me this whole time!

Lance looked at himself in the door mirror. The tight black dress shirt fit him nicely that it made his body look firm and toned. Even the hemming of his matching pin striped black pants really accentuated his legs. He put on the silver vest over his matching tie. He adjusted the tie perfectly and struck a pose. He pointed finger guns and flashed a big smile. He felt a swell of pride coming up inside him. He felt and looked good.  _ Damn I’m gorgeous,  _ he thought as he sprayed some cologne on his wrists,  _ who wouldn’t want to be with me? _

There was a knock on the door. “You done yet?”

Lance threw the cologne bottle on his bed and opened the door. Keith stood at the door leaning next to the frame with his hands in his pockets. Keith’s outfit was more simpler than Lance’s as he only wore Lance’s suit from high school. The thing was though, he looked really good. The suit fit him just perfectly as if Keith was made to wear suits all the time.

Lance let out a nervous breath that made Keith raise his eyebrows. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah you….” Lance gulped. He hoped that whatever came out of his mouth didn’t sound stupid. “You look like someone that came out of a spy movie. Like James fucking Bond.”

Keith kept staring at him. “Who?”

Lance widened his eyes. “Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of James Bond.” 

Keith still looked at him with a confused look. “Is that a cartoon?” 

Lance gave up when he heard his phone chime. He looked and saw a text from Pidge.

**Pidge:** hurry up ladies matt and i are here we are sitting with shiro

Lance sighed as he put the phone away. “Let’s go Pidge and Matt are already there.”

“Better said than done,” said Keith. Lance followed Keith into the kitchen where it Hunk’s wine was already wrapped up nicely with a white cloth and a fancy purple ribbon. 

Keith picked up the bottle when Hunk called from his room. “Have fun! And please be safe!” 

“Will do!” Lance called back. “Enjoy your League-ing!” 

They walked out the door. Lance closed and locked the door. After a few moments he turned to Keith. “Do they know?”

“Know what?” They walked towards the elevator. Keith pushed the button to go down. 

“That… you’re going to… you know…. Face the mafia… and take them out….”

“No. They don’t.” The elevator chimed. The doors opened and the boys walked in. “I only told them that I just want to get to know Shiro.” Lance tapped the first floor. The doors creaked back in.

The elevator started to move down. “Are you going to kill Shiro tonight?” Lance asked stiffly.

Keith scoffed. He held the bottle closer. “No, that’s going to leave a bad impression on the family.” He glazed over at Lance. His violet eyes really seemed to glow more with that attractive suit. “You know the expression of ‘keep your friends close and keep your enemies closer’ right?”

Lance bit his lip and gave a thoughtful expression. “Yeah I guess.”

“That’s exactly what I’m doing tonight.” The elevator chimed to signal them that they had arrived on the first floor. “Make him comfortable so I can get closer to the family.” Keith walked calmly out of the elevator. He nodded at the night guard and he tipped his hat back in return.

Lance held his breath. He felt intimidated over how confident Keith was going. He sounded extremely firm that his intentions would go as planned. If what he said was true, then maybe no one would die tonight. He really hoped that was the case for tonight. 

Lance followed Keith outside where a taxi was waiting for them.

______________________

“Lance stop looking at them,” Pidge snapped, “they’re already creeped out just by the way you look.”

Lance looked away from the pretty giggling girls with their glasses of champagne. “Why wouldn’t they look at me? They know a work of art when they see it.” He puffed out his collar which made Matt and Shiro laugh and Pidge smacking their head. Keith drank his sparkling water in silence.

“Well it seems like you really are enjoying yourself Lance,” said Shiro. He leaned over at the table resting his shaved chin on the knuckles of his hands. Lance thought it wasn’t fair that his own white polished suit brought out his ripped figure. “I’m glad all of you were able to come.”

“Well thank you for inviting us all,” said Matt beamingly. “So what is the special occasion for?”

“Well from what I know, it’s supposed to be the one year anniversary of this restaurant’s opening. The owners didn’t really have a lot to begin with but they really built this place from the ground up. I mean just look at it.” Shiro pointed around the restaurant. He wasn’t kidding. The entire restaurant was covered in crimson velvet and white marbling with intricate golden borders. The golden walls had detailed woven floral patterns that looked like something from the classical period. In the middle of the restaurant were five lion statues made of five different types of jewels: ruby, sapphire, emerald, topaz, and black diamond. The lions posed majestically on top of each other supporting the black lion on top spouting out water. Lance did feel out of place in this beautiful palace; he felt unworthy of being here. Shiro continued. “Can you believe this restaurant had almost nothing? It was literally a run down dusty place. And now it looks like this.”

Pidge whistled in admiration. “Well they sure should be proud of it.”

“Do we get to meet or see the owners?” asked Matt. Keith, who was not really part of the conversation, seemed to finally perk up when he heard Matt. Lance noticed this as well. He kept sipping his sparkling water as he eyed Keith’s curiosity.

Shiro shrugged. “They might send one of their minions to come and speak on their behalf. The owners are actually quite secretive since no one has actually ever seen them before.”

“That’s because they are from the mafia,” said Keith. Everyone suddenly turned their heads towards him when he finally spoke. Keith eyed Shiro at the corner of his eye. “Isn’t that right?”

Shiro stared at him for a while with no expression then he laughed. “Well, that certainly is the rumor around here but we don’t know for sure. In fact, I’m kind of investigating that on the side too. We don’t know where all of the money came from. We don’t know if they had some kind of sponsor or they really are as successful as they say.” That really got Keith’s attention as he turned more towards him. Shiro smiled at him. For some reason that made Lance kind of sick seeing him looking charismatic at Keith. “Also I’m really bad with names but you’re-”

“Keith.”

“Keith…. And how are you related to…” Shiro pointed at everyone at the table.

“I’m Lance’s cousin.” Lance spit his water on himself and Pidge which resulted a spew of curse words from the small child. Lance tried to wipe with his cloth napkin as best as he could causing more wrinkles to the tablecloth and himself. Pidge snatched it from him and started to use the napkin like a towel to dry their hair. Keith ignored them and continued. “My mother remarried so he’s my dad’s sister in law’s son.”

Shiro nodded in amusement. “Interesting, you guys must be pretty close then.”

“Ah no this is actually the first time we’ve met. Our parents just want us to get to know each other,” Keith remarked. Lance dropped his mouth. He couldn’t believe how smooth Keith was talking to Shiro with all of these lies. There was no hint of uneasiness in his voice. He also felt a little offended over the fact he just made up a story that they weren’t close at all. 

Shiro chuckled and clapped. “Well it is still nice of you to join us Keith.”

Keith nodded in return. “The pleasure is all mine. In fact…” He reached under the table and brought up the wrapped wine bottle. “This is a gift from me to you for inviting us to this wonderful place.” 

Shiro took the bottle to unwrap. He glanced in wonder at the swirls of the silvery liquid in the drink. “Wow this is gorgeous. Thank you so much. What is it?”

“I like to call it…. Galaxia.” Lance mouthed “what” when he heard the words coming out of Keith’s pretty mouth. “In fact, it’s homemade.” Lance winced but tried to keep his composure as calm as possible.

Shiro raised his eyebrows in excitement. “Really? Oh man, now we really got to try it.” He looked around to see if there was a waiter around. “I don’t see anyone around….”

“Are you looking for a way to open that?” A voice with an Australian accent spoke from the side. Everyone from the table turned to see a tall middle aged man with the most impressive orange mustache ever. He reminded Lance of a stereotypical right hand man of a king in an ancient European kingdom. 

The mustached man reached into his coat pocket and took out a small bottle opener. “Well you’re in luck! I happened to have an opener here with me!” He glanced over at Shiro and made a welcoming gesture. “May I?”

Shiro nodded and gave the bottle to the man. He glazed over the sparkly swirls through the glass. “What is this? I have never seen this kind of drink before.”

“It’s called Galaxia?” Shiro looked at Keith for confirmation to be received a nod. He looked back at the mustached man who was almost done taking the cork out. “I was told it’s homemade.”

The mustached man nodded and raised his eyebrows. “Is that so? Well whoever made this is quite the scientist.”

“Oh believe me, he is,” Lance chimed only to be ignored by everyone else at the table.

When the cork finally popped from the bottle, everyone clapped with praise. “Well now that is done, everyone would like a drink?” 

Shiro pointed to the seat next to him. “Certainly. In fact, why won’t you join us?” 

The mustached man bowed politely. “It will be my pleasure.” He took his seat and started to pour the drink for everyone, starting with Shiro’s glass first. “I’m Coran by the way. It is nice to meet you all.”

Everyone around the table introduced themselves as Coran continued to pour drinks. Coran nodded when Matt finished introducing himself. “And what brings you here for tonight?”

Shiro helped pass the drinks out for everyone around the table. “I was told that tonight was a one year anniversary for the opening of this restaurant. I came here with a couple of friends to take a look and we must say we are quite impressed.”

“Impressed?” Coran looked at him confused.

“With everything! The service, the atmosphere, the grandness of it all.”

Coran nodded again and took his glass at the rim. “I am pleased to hear that you are all enjoying your time here. It’s wonderful hear from the young people’s thoughts of our humble establishment. Please also stick around as there will be a dance later on.”

“We certainly will,” said Shiro. He looked at everyone around the table to raise his glass. Everyone else did the same. “Here’s to the success of The Royal Lions, to good times, and this lovely night.” Everyone clinked their glasses at the same time and took their drink. 

Matt quickly looked at his own glass after taking a quick sip. “Wow this is amazing! You can almost barely taste the alcohol it’s so smooth!” 

Pidge nudged their brother. “You know you can always get some more if you ask.” 

Matt shifted his eyes at them. “What is that supposed to mean… you’re not supposed to know these things. You’re underaged.” Pidge chuckled as they continued to chug down their glass.

Shiro and Coran’s eyes went wide after taking their first sips. “My word this is… quite exquisite,” breathed Coran.

“I’ve never had anything like this before,” exclaimed Shiro. Then he turned to Keith. “You said that this is homemade right?”

“That’s correct.”

“Is there anyway we can have more of this? I’d like to maybe start a business with you.” 

Lance started coughing into his drink spilling all over himself.

“Dude Lance! Are you going to die?” Pidge bursted out. 

Lance glared at the small child. “I was expecting you to ask if I was okay but sure I guess I’m going to die from how much you care about me.”

Keith answered Shiro, “I think that can be arranged but why don’t we talk about this some other time?”

“Sure anytime,” said Shiro.

“Ah how nice to see young people work together at this day and age,” hummed Coran.

“Actually I have a question for you,” said Keith and Coran perked up at the statement. “You sounded like you know about this establishment. What’s your relation here? Are you the owner?”

Coran laughed. “Ah well that does make it seem like I would be the owner but alas I am not.” He put on a small smile. “You can say that I am a very close friend to the family of this business.” Coran took out his pocket watch and looked surprised. “Ah well it seems to be my cue to take my leave.” He got out of his chair and bowed. “Thank you for your company and your drink. I hope to see you all later as the night goes on.”

Shiro took out his hand to shake Coran’s. “We hope to see you around as well. Thanks for joining us.”

Everyone waved him goodbye as Coran lost himself back into the crowd. 

Pidge made a loud whining groan. “I’m starving, can we go get food?”

“Unless you want to just get the small self served h'orderves instead of waiting for an actual meal then go for it little one,” said Matt.

Pidge looked at Matt with disgust. “But Maaaaatt. I don’t want to eat things that look like green goop.” 

“If you don’t eat you won’t be able to grow bigger than me.” He playfully pushed his sibling. 

Lance glanced down at his vest and realized the Galaxia was staining more than half of his vest. The stain made his vest look like a dark crater on the moon. “While you guys are bickering over your height, I have a wardrobe malfunction.” He got up from his chair and stormed into the crowd furiously looking down. 

So many things went through Lance’s head. He was shocked that Keith could be such a smooth talker especially in front of someone as cool as Shiro. It kind of made him jealous that Keith had those skills of charm and that he didn’t. He also couldn’t believe that Keith agreed to make an alcohol business with Shiro in a couple of words using Hunk’s own creation. This was exactly the same situation with Pike and now Hunk is going to have to make more alcohol for another client.

Then it hit Lance. That meant they were technically going to work for the mafia-

Lance suddenly bumped into someone while lost in thought. 

“Oh my goodness! Are you alright?” asked a woman’s voice. It had a slight Australian accent like Coran’s. 

Lance rubbed his nose in pain. A hand held right in front of him. He looked up to see a beautiful slender dark skinned woman in a shimmering dark blue dress. Her platinum hair was tied up in a neat bun. Her sparkling blue eyes looked worried. “I’m so sorry I did not even see you!”

Lance made a smug look as he softened his expression. “Oh don’t worry hun, you’re perfectly fine. I should have looked where I was going which would have been straight in front of me.” He took her hand to help himself up. He was surprised of how strong she was. 

The woman looked at Lance’s vest. “Oh my! Did you stain yourself?”

Lance laughed confidently, trying to hide his embarrassment. “Oh yes. It was just a small spill no big deal. Alcohol spreads to clothes pretty quickly you know?”

The woman giggled which sent butterflies to Lance’s stomach. “Well if one isn’t careful then it certainly can. Do you know where the washroom is?”

Lance made a strange snorting-giggling sound at the word “washroom.” The woman still kept her same smiling expression. “I don’t. Do you happen to know?”

The woman nodded and took her hand out. “I frequent at this restaurant a lot. Follow me and I’ll show you.” 

Feeling like a giddy child again, Lance followed the lady down the hallways. He did not realize how big this restaurant, it was almost like he was in a palace. And this woman was like a princess that must live in this palace, or so Lance believed.

“Here it is!” The woman pointed at two white doors with an intricate fancy golden font indicating one door for “Gentlemen” and another for “Ladies.” 

Lance tipped at her. “Thank you very kindly for the escort Miss…”

“Allura. Just call me Allura.” She spread a sweet smile that almost made Lance weak to his knees.

“Allura,” he mouthed. Just saying her name sounded beautiful. “Why thank you very much Allura. I’m Lance, pleasure to meet your acquaintance.” He bowed almost at a right angle.

Allura giggled. “No need to be so formal Lance, I was only just showing you the way.” She headed towards the ladies’ restroom as she waved back at him. “I wish you luck with getting the stain off of your vest. Enjoy the rest of your night.” 

Lance waved back at her with a stupid grin on his face. “Same to you Allura.” She nodded and headed into the bathroom. He sighed in content until he looked down at his vest. He had completely forgot about the stain.

___________________

Matt brought back the strange green appetizers to Pidge. Pidge pushed the plate away but Matt kept pushing it back. He took a bite of the green goop to show Pidge that it was harmless. Pidge kept staring at him and wrinkled their nose. 

Shiro laughed at the whole sibling banter. He turned to Keith who was playing around with his strange green appetizer.

“Not a fan of the food?” Shiro asked, trying to make small talk.

Keith looked up at him and put his fork down. “It’s not that. I guess I’m not super hungry at the moment.”

Shiro nodded. “That’s understandable. You’ll probably be more hungry when the main courses arrive.”

Keith hummed in agreement. “You mentioned earlier that you were investigating this place as well. Is there anything you are looking for in particular?”

Shiro shrugged and leaned back in his velvet chair. “I guess I have sort of a history with the owners. The people I work with are usually acquaintances or their name comes up. I was just sent here to take a look at their establishment. Kind of like looking out for them, making sure everything is alright.”

“But they don’t know you’re doing it.” Keith remarked as he sipped his glass.

Shiro laughed. “I guess you can say that.”

“So what kind of work do you do?”

Shiro stared at Keith for a while, as if he was trying to find the right words to say. “Not trying to sound suspicious but my work isn’t actually legal…” he finally said.

“Is that so?” Keith inquired. “It seems we have something in common.” 

Shiro raised his eyebrow, but it was unclear if it was by amusement or suspicion. “Really? Like what?” He picked up his own glass and swirled the remaining Galaxia like a small whirlpool. “Does it have anything to do with making sparkly alcohol like this?” 

They were interrupted when somebody clinked their glass with a fork. The entire room suddenly went from loud conversations to silence. The people turned their heads toward the front of the large room. There was a raised podium with a microphone stand in the middle of it. In front of the podium stood Coran looking proud with the glass and fork in his hand. 

“Ahem.” He cleared his throat with the fork in hand. “I would like to thank everyone that could make it to this wonderful restaurant this evening-ah!” He was interrupted by light applause. “Thank you, thank you.” When the applause died down, Coran continued. “I would like for all of us to give a warm welcome to the man that brought this place from the ground up. This man lived a hard life in his early years and now became one of the most successful business leaders in the city. This man is an inspiration to us all. Please welcome, Alfor Altea!”

A roar of applause filled up the room. Coran pointed to his right as an older man made his entrance. His wrinkles showed that he had lived through many events in life. His long silver hair was tied back into a ponytail. He raised his hands up to quiet down the crowd. “Thank you everyone for making your time to be here.” His voice was deep and soothing, like calming waves. “We are here to celebrate the Royal Lion’s first anniversary. As Coran has stated, this restaurant started out as a small establishment. We never would have imagined that it would become like this. And this is all from your gracious love and support. Without all of you, we would not be here today.”

Another round of applause ensued. Some people even stood up from their seats, including Pidge. Keith eyed Shiro’s movements from his peripheral vision. He seemed to be calm with a stoic smile. But something didn’t seem right. It seemed as if Shiro was holding something back like a secret because he didn’t move his body position for a long time.

When the applause died down, Alfor motioned Coran over. Coran nodded and went to the small table behind to grab a glass and wine bottle. He poured it and handed it over to Alfor. “I would like to make a toast tonight,” he announced to the crowd.

As everyone held their glasses up, Keith heard a couple of murmurs in the background. He glanced behind him at the entrance of the restaurant. There were two big men that were trying to get into the restaurant. One of them had thick sideburns that clung to his face. The other had an eyepatch that covered half of his face.The hostess tried to block in front of them by explaining and showing them that they were closed for a private party. The eyepatch man growled and pushed her away. 

Keith knew he has seen that man in particular before. There weren’t many men with an eyepatch, but that also meant there weren’t many men with one eye. Keith stared at his glass. He tried to think if there was any time in his life if he had seen that man before.

“This is for all of us,” Alfor continued. More people rose their glasses. “To this restaurant, to this lovely night.” 

He must have. There weren’t many men that only had one eye supposedly. The only time that Keith had seen a one eye man was-

“To the Royal Lions!” Alfor exclaimed with his glass held high.

“To the Royal Lions!” The crowd repeated.

With Keith’s keen ears, he heard a click. He turned around quickly. The eyepatched man reached into his suit. Keith stood up and shouted as loud as he could. “EVERYONE DUCK!”

The man brought out a small firearm. He held down the trigger and aimed at Alfor. His glass shattered. Coran ran and knocked Alfor down to drag him behind the podium.

Everyone in the restaurant started shrieking in terror. People hid underneath the tablecloths that draped over their tables. Some people ran all over the place. Some of them were stricken by the flying bullets that whizzed through the air. They fell on the ground like a pile of rocks. The two men kept firing anyone that stood in their way. They kept walking towards the front of the restaurant. 

Everyone at Keith’s table was underneath the table. Pidge clung onto Matt with one side of their face on his chest and their hand on their ears. Matt held onto Pidge tightly. Keith kept looking over the scenery and ducking when it wasn’t safe. 

“They just sent in more people!” Keith shouted to keep them updated.

Shiro turned to Matt. “I’m going to get you and Pidge out of here! It’s not safe here!”

“What about you?!” Matt shouted back. More screams and falling bodies kept getting louder in the background that it was getting harder to hear each other even they were in close proximity. 

Shiro crawled over towards them. He grabbed Pidge and held them like a small child. They were shivering. “I’m coming back to deal with this, this wasn’t supposed to happen!”

Matt blinked. “What?! What are you talking about?”

Shiro used his free arm to grab Matt’s back. “I’ll explain everything later!” He turned to Keith. “Keith are you okay-!”

But Keith was not under the table. Shiro peered underneath the tablecloth. He saw Keith standing in place with a shot gun on his hand. He was firing at the strange men with clean accuracy. Keith quickly ducked down underneath the table again. “We got to go!” He shouted at them.

Shiro nodded and motioned Matt to follow him. Shiro, with Pidge in his arms, and Matt fled the chaos as they lowered their bodies. Keith crawled out of the table and kicked it towards a grunt coming towards him. 

Keith caught his breath as he brought his gun out again. The whole place was a chaotic battlefield. People fighting back with fists and throwing forks and knives. The bigger men were more powerful though as they all had small machine guns. Dead bodies kept dropping on the ground like flies on a hot day. The room was starting to fill the stench of strong blood. 

It was just like on the night of his parents’ murder. These strange men coming into people’s lives and disrupting their happiness with gunfire and bloodshed.

A bullet flew past Keith’s ear and he dodged in time. He looked over his shoulder and saw a gun barrel pointing straight at his forehead. 

The man with the sideburns smirked with yellow teeth. “You got guts boy.” 

______________

Lance ran out of the bathroom after what sounded like screams and gunfire. His heart started pounding hard. He didn’t want to believe that there was another gunfight just outside of the hallways. He didn’t want to experience another gunfight again. He could flee.

But then he remembered Keith. 

Lance crawled in the hallways, trying to keep himself low. He saw Allura peering behind the hallways. He touched her on the shoulder and she jumped. She had fear in her eyes. He remembered those same kind of eyes from Keith, eight years ago.

“What happened-”

“The Galras are here!” A small sob came out of her  throat. 

Lance held out his hand to grab her shoulder but she turned away. “We got to go! It isn’t safe!”

Allura growled to fight back her tears. She wiped her eyes and took a deep breath. She suddenly had an angry expression on her face. “Those men must be here for my father.”

“Your father?”

Allura lifted her dress. Lance looked away shyly but then he realized something. There was a gun strapped to her thigh. She grabbed the gun and released the lock. “I have to make sure he’s okay!”

Lance’s mouth dropped as she ran towards the violence. He peered behind the wall. He couldn’t believe how much of a badass she was. She aimed her gun at the large thugs, knocking them out clean in the forehead. Another grunt ran towards her and she kicked him in the face. She then ran over  to the podium screaming for her father.

She seemed to be fine when she found her father and Coran behind the podium on the ground holding on to her. Lance then turned his gaze to the other direction. He scanned for Keith until he saw a man pointing at Keith at gunpoint. 

Without think Lance ran to him. “Keith!” He shouted. He tried to ignore the bullets flying past him as he only focused in on Keith.

Keith kicked the man in the groin hard. The man winced in pain. Keith grabbed his arms and twisted them by flipping the man over. Keith turned at Lance and shouted back at him, “What are you doing?  Get out of here!” 

The man from below grabbed Keith’s foot and dragged him down on the floor. Keith slammed hard on his jaw and he cried in pain. He spat blood at the man as he kicked him in the face. He crawled away from the groaning man. Lance grabbed Keith and brought him up. But Keith pushed him away. “Lance this isn’t safe! You got to get out of here!”

“I’m not leaving you behind!”

Keith let out an annoyed groan. He spat out more blood on the side. “Seriously get out of here before you get hurt!” 

Before Lance could say anything, he knocked Keith down. The man with the sideburns stood up and was ready to grab at them. Without thinking, Lance threw a punch at him in the face. The man fell backwards.

Lance shook his hand and yelped. He didn’t think he was that weak. The man’s face felt like a brick. 

He felt something pull him back from behind. Keith walked in front of Lance and started to head towards the sideburn man. He placed both legs between the man so that he was looking straight down at him. He cocked a gun at him. He pressed his foot down on the man’s wrist and screamed in pain.

“Who are you?!” Demanded Keith. He kept the gun pointing at the man’s face. 

He let out a soft chuckle. “This isn’t the place to make friends boy.”

“WHO ARE YOU?!” Keith shouted again. He pressed his foot on the man’s wrist even harder. His screams were getting louder. “TELL ME ARE YOU THE GALRAS OR NOT?”

The man’s screaming turned into harsh laughter. It was such an ugly laugh that it sent shivers down Lance’s spine. It sounded like he was in both extreme pain and amusement. “You really do have guts boy! Boys like you should be playing with toys! Not pretending they can take down the mafia!”

Keith growled in anger. He stomped hard on the man’s hand. Lance thought he heard a crack. The man screamed in pain again. “DO YOU KNOW LUCAS KOGANE?!”

The screams turned into chortles of laughter and sobbing. “No and I don’t fucking care!” 

Keith inched his gun closer to his forehead. “TELL ME THE TRUTH!”

The man was out of breath but he kept holding on. Keith dug his foot even deeper into the man’s hand. “That name was only mentioned by my buddy Sendak. I don’t know no Kogane. I never met the man. He died a couple years ago. Over Quintessence.” 

“WHAT THE HELL IS QUINTESSENCE?!” Keith really couldn’t take it anymore as his anger was starting to take all over him. 

The man spat at him in the face. “The reason why we Galras are still here! We live on that shit!” 

He screeched in horrendous laughter. It was driving Keith up the wall so much that he lost it. 

He shot the man in the forehead. 

Lance screamed at Keith to stop. But Keith didn’t listen.

Keith kept firing more shots. He kept firing him dead in the face. Blood and skin kept splattering from his face like a geyser. The blood started staining on Keith’s face as he leaned closer and firing faster. The man’s face was no longer disguisable. All was left was a body with meat and blood all mixed together in chunks where the head was supposed to be. 

Lance couldn’t take this anymore. He felt bile coming up from his stomach to the back of his throat. His gag reflexes were kicking in very quickly. He ran towards Keith and grabbed his arm. “Keith stop he’s already dead!”

With Keith’s fast reflexes he elbowed Lance in the head. He fell backwards and landed on his back. Then suddenly everything went black. 


	5. The Shady Deal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really sorry about the delay... I wasn't kidding that my anxiety was getting really bad but of course I obviously need a computer to type. But here I am with the next chapter! 
> 
> Also kind of some background stuff with this story: so there's this restaurant in my town that opened recently and my family believes it's owned by the Chinese Triads because there is no way some fancy Chinese restaurant would open all the sudden from a guy who's business history wasn't the greatest. Jokes on them now because now it's closed after two months lol.
> 
> Anyway enjoy the next exposition dump chapter!

A low humming sound of the fan wakes up Lance. He slowly opened his eyes to the blurry world. He blinked a couple of times to see the individual panels of the old rotating fan. He also tried to get adjusted with the dim light from the ceiling fan. 

Lance looked over to the side to see that he was laying on an old fashioned green velvet couch. He adjusted his eyes in the dim room to turn his head around. The walls were covered in an old fashioned floral wallpaper. The carpet was laid in a dark rococo style, something you would see out of old European drama movies. Behind him there was a door that was open slightly. 

There were male voices coming from the other side of the door. Lance tried to focus to the sounds behind him by closing his eyes.

“... so it wasn’t supposed to happen?” That was definitely Keith’s voice. Lance tried to breath as silently as he could to listen. 

“No.” That had to be Shiro’s voice, a rusty growl. “That just…”He let out a big sigh. “I didn’t even know they were coming in.”

“So you know them?” Lance felt shivers in his spine at how direct Keith was asking.

“Yeah…” Another sigh from Shiro. “I guess the secret is out.” Pause. “I’m from the Galras.”

“I figured.” Lance rolled his eyes. Of course Keith knew, he knew a long time ago. “You kind of have that air about you.”

“Really?” asked Shiro. “Do I really look like a straight up thug?”

“No it’s not that. It’s just I could sense it just by the air you give. Remember we  talked about how our jobs aren’t exactly legal? I can feel that from you.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, what exactly do you do?” There was a clinking sound. They must be drink wine from glasses. 

“I lived on the streets most of my life. Got involved with some bad people. Did odd jobs here and there. Delivery. Smuggling. Bounty. You name it.”

“Really? So you have experience in killing people?” 

“Yeah.” Lance winced at the answer. 

“How many?”

Lance held his breath as he was afraid to hear Keith’s answer. “I’ve lost count to be honest. Maybe like five. Or twelve.”

“I see…” There was a pause. Maybe they were sipping out of their glasses. Lance wondered if he should get up and greet them but he also wondered if they would stop having this conversation if he got up. He decided to stay in the same position for a while. He scratched his head. 

“So what exactly were you supposed to be there for?” Keith asked. “Was it supposed to be a solo job?”

“A lot of things.” Another sigh from Shiro. “A lot of it was kind of my own thing. Mostly wanted to make sure Allura was okay.”

“Allura?”

“Yeah…. My fiance.” 

Lance mouthed “what” but accidently made a squeak from the back of his throat. He quickly covered his mouth.

“What was that?” 

“Maybe Lance is awake.” The door creaked and someone came walking in. “Lance?” Lance looked up to see Keith’s face peering upside down from his viewpoint. His dark hair fell over his face like curtains, draping over his delicate face. Lance felt this was an interesting perspective of Keith and he wished he would see him more from this side…

“Um hey,” Lance said quietly. He tried to hide the fact he was blushing by tuning to the backside of the couch. 

“Hey.” Keith nodded back. Then he stopped as if he remembered something. He looked down at the ground briefly. “Um…” He looked up with flushed cheeks. Lance screamed at himself internally because of Keith in this position peering over on top of him. “I’m sorry that I punched you earlier.” He rolled his eyes on the carpet to avoid eye contact.

Lance blinked. Then he remembered that he was hit in the face by Keith’s elbow. “Hey it’s all good!” He laughed nervously, trying to make light of the conversation. “I mean it was at the spur of the moment right?” 

Before their conversation could continue, Shiro walked in. He looked over at Lance. Lance realized now he had two tall men towering over him. It made him feel very small all the sudden. “You feeling okay?”

Lance sat up. A hit of heaviness thundered in his head. He let out a groan. Shiro and Keith tried to grab him but Lance waved their help away. “I’ll be alright.” He sighed and blinked a couple of times. He looked up at them and gave them a smile of lies. “What’s up?”

Keith rolled his eyes. Shiro kept his composure. He almost looked like he was glaring down at Lance and that made Lance feel very uneasy. “Did you by any chance hear what we were saying…?”

“Saying?” Lance squeaked. He realized he might have responded way too quickly. “About what?” He lied. 

Both of the attractive men kept staring at Lance. Then Keith turned to Shiro. “He probably didn’t hear anything.” 

Shiro sighed. “Well either way. I wanted to say, to you both,” he also looked at Keith. Then back at Lance. “I am so sorry about what happened. I did not mean for any of you to cause any harm. So I deeply apologize.” He eyed at Lance’s head. “If you need to get to a hospital I will take full responsibility for that.”

Lance shook his head but he tried to fight back the pain. “No! No it’s fine! I’ll be fine! I think with some water and a couple of painkillers I’ll be fine!” He laughed nervously. Then he gave Keith a sly glance. “Though you do have a very bony elbow.”

Keith rolled his eyes again. “Well excuse me for having strong muscles.” 

Lance snickered as Shiro tried to get their attention again. “Anyways… I feel like it’s only fair for Lance to know about this too.” Lance pretended to look curious as he already knew what he heard. But what did he need to know? That Shiro is part of the Galras? The original plan didn’t go as they expected to? Or the fact that Shiro is engaged with someone from the other family? “I am from  the Galra family.” Lance nodded as if it wasn’t anything new. Shiro didn’t seem to be unfazed by his reaction so he kept going. “I was supposed to investigate to see if the restaurant, who is owned by the Altea family, was actually getting their money from their success or something illegal like money laundering. I was the right candidate because….” He let out a long sigh. It sounded so tired. “I am already engaged to Don Altea’s daughter, Allura. I also wanted to check up on her to see if she was alright.”

“Did you see her though?” asked Lance.

Shiro shook his head. “Unfortunately I didn’t due to the chaos.” Lance nodded. “Anyway, the other reason is because the Galras want alliance with the Alteas because they heard rumors that they were making business fast. In the past the Alteas would ask the Galras for things like protection and loans. Recently there had been rumors that they had stopped getting involved with illegal business.” There was another pause. Shiro bit his lip. “Which was probably why Sendak came in with his men.”

“Just to shoot them up for no reason?” Lance exclaimed.

“No,” said Shiro. “For trust. I guess Zarkon found out the rumors were true and just decided to go for it.” He let out another sigh. “But that really wasn’t the way to go. He was never good at keeping in his anger...” 

There was a pause between the three men. Lance leaned back against the couch but he almost felt like he made too much noise. The fan above the ceiling kept creaking in a slow hypnotic motion. 

“However,” Shiro finally spoke. “I spoke too much.” He took out a gun out of nowhere and pointed at Lance. Lance squeaked at the sight of the barrel pointing straight between his eyes. He threw his hands up in the air shaking in fear. “All this information needs to be confidential. Or else I will have to do this the hard way.” 

“Not unless we can keep your word.” Another gun clicked at Shiro’s temple. Shiro and Lance moved their eyes slowly at Keith. He moved the gun’s barrel closer to Shiro. “Really, you led us into this world. You confessed to everything to us at your own will. So wouldn’t you agree that this would be your responsibility?”

Shiro smirked. “For someone that grew up on the streets, you really know your way around negotiations.” He slowly moved his gun away from Lance. It gave Lance almost a sigh of relief when he realized now the gun was pointing at Keith’s forehead. It would not surprise him if Shiro and Keith started to open fire at each other. “And what makes you think I can trust you?” He eyed at Lance with the corner of his eye. Lance whimpered keeping his arms higher. Then he eyed back at Keith. “Unless your price is death, name your price.” 

Keith cocked his gun. “Seems like you already forgot the deal you made back at the restaurant.” 

“Deal?”

“You said that you were thinking about starting a business with us isn’t that right?”

Shiro pursed his lips. He adjusted his gun position. “I suppose.”

Keith nodded his head towards the whimpering Lance. “Lance here has a buddy that can make more of that Galaxia stuff. If we can give you another batch by tomorrow-”

“Tomorrow?!” Lance yelped.

“Shut up Lance!” Keith yelled at him. Lance’s heart sank at the sharpness of his voice. He didn’t expect Keith to yell at him of all people. Keith seemed to calm down though. He looked back at Shiro. “Three days.”

“Three days?” Shiro raised his eyebrows.

“We will give you another batch in three days. If we do that can we gain your trust?”

The two men kept their guns pointing at each other for what it seemed like an eternity. Lance almost forgot how to breathe. 

“Sure,” Shiro finally said. Lance sighed in relief as he put his arms down. But Shiro kept talking. “But I’m not the only one that needs that trust. I’m not made up of the entire family. So you’re going to have to present this deal to Sendak or Prorok.” Keith grimaced at the names. “However,” Shiro glared at Keith as it was the last staredown in the world, “both sides of the party needs to give that mutual trust. Right, Keith?”

Then Shiro squeezed the trigger. But Keith beat him to it. 

He grabbed the barrel of Shiro’s gun and pointed it at the ground. He locked Shiro’s arm into a tight squeeze causing Shiro to let go of the gun. Keith caught the gun in his other hand. In a swift motion he pressed the barrel at Shiro’s templed and pulled the trigger.

There was a small click in the barrel.

Shiro let out a small chuckle as Keith threw the gun on the ground. “You fucking bastard,” he muttered. 

Shiro let out a small smirk. “I could say the same to you.” He quickly grabbed the Keith’s gun out of his hands and pointed it directly at his stomach. He pulled the trigger. Nothing, except a click. “Looks like great minds think alike.” 

“So um,” Lance spoke finally what it seemed like forever. Both men slowly turned their heads at Lance. Lance suddenly felt the atmosphere got really tense. “Does that mean you didn’t mean to kill me after all?”

Keith looked like he was going to open his mouth in response to Lance’s stupid remark. But Shiro just laughed. “I guess not.” When he stopped he made a smile that didn’t look like a smile that was reassuring or lying. “But that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t hesitate to kill you if necessary.”

____________________________

Sendak watched the glittery swirls circle slowly in his glass. The only light source came from the dim dying lightbulb hanging from the small pantry. Shiro, Lance and Keith stood in front of him as he sat in a small wooden dining chair and table set. The dim light showed the many scars of age on Sendak’s face. His single eye was enveloped by the shadows of the light. He quietly scowled at the alcohol and then looked up at Shiro. “What is this?” He spat. 

“It’s a new drink that was provided by these two men that I met last night,” answered Shiro firmly. He pointed back at Lance and Keith. Lance tried his best to look as relaxed as Keith but Lance couldn’t boggle the fact that he was standing right in front of one of the most infamous killers in the city. “They said it’s called Galaxia because of how much it looks like the stars in the galaxies.”

Sendak snorted in laughter. “What a stupid concept! Sounds like something a fucking first grader would do!” He grabbed the glass and chugged it down. He smacked his lips to find any essence of the lingering taste. Then his single eye opened wider. “Holy shit,” he breathed.

Shiro put his hands on his hips. “See? What did I tell you?” 

Sendak growled in frustration. He quickly moved his eye at Shiro, then Lance (who winced), then Keith (who still kept his calm stance). “So you can get more of this in three days?”

“That’s correct sir,” answered Keith. He put his hands in his pockets. 

“And who the fuck are you broad?” Sendak barked at them. 

Lance was about to angrily banter back at him but Keith moved his hand in front of him to stop. “I’m Keith,” he answered. Then he pointed at Lance. “This is my cousin Lance.” Again with the cousin story. “We just met with Shiro and gave him a bottle to try. We have a friend that mixes drinks as a hobby. We just think that his talents should be known out there. We were thinking you might be the best candidate.”

Sendak roared with laugher. “You’re joking!” He slammed the table multiple times until the glass knocked over. He wheezed at the end of his thunderous laughter. “You,” he pointed at Keith, “a bunch of scrawny kids want to sell your fruit juice to a bunch of thugs?! What the fuck are you getting at?”

Shiro slammed his palms on the table loudly. He leaned in closer to Sendak that they were almost touching noses. “Don’t deny that is the best drink you’ve had in a long time.”

Sendak scoffed. “Damn right. I’ll admit it. It’s not bad, especially for a bunch of amateurs.” 

Lance was almost ready to start a fight but Keith moved his arm in front of him. 

“And what do you think if we put this in with the Quintessence?” lowered Shiro. Keith and Lance both looked up at the sound of the word “Quintessence.” 

Sendak made a low chuckle. He pointed at Shiro. “This is why the Don wants you to be the next successor isn’t?” He said in a mocking tone. “Isn’t that just your excuse so you can get more of that shit?”

“We aren’t talking about that now Sendak!” Shiro slammed the table again. Lance probably has never seen Shiro that angry before. It seemed that whatever this Quintessence was it was very personal to Shiro. “This is a completely different subject! I am just talking about what if we put it in with the Quintessence? Just imagine how much more we could sell especially with something like the Galaxia.” 

Sendak just roared with laughter again. “That is so stupid! You just mention the Quintessence because we all know you can’t live without it!” 

Shiro slapped Sendak across his cheek. That was the fastest slap Lance has ever seen. Sendak just continued to howl in laughter. “This is probably how you fucking killed Prorok too isn’t?”

“For the last time I don’t know who killed him!” 

“Some sicko that’s what! His face was mushed up like potatoes when I found him! Only sickos like you would create something like that-”

“What is going on in here?” A shrill voice bursted into the small room. The door slammed wide open to reveal an older woman with her white frail hair in a tight bun. Lance felt like he had seen this woman before. Despite her small stature she marched next to the old men. She glanced at Shiro then at Sendak. She slapped Sendak and he yelped. “What are you doing?”

Sendak rubbed his cheeks in pain. “This sicko wants to mix in that Quintessence with this galaxy stuff and sell it.”

“Galaxy stuff?” This woman took no nonsense it seemed. She leaned over at Shiro and glared at him. 

Shiro poured in a glass for her. “Try this Haggar.” Then Lance realized this woman, Haggar, was the same old woman that was at that night. “Tell me you don’t think that is the best drink you’ve ever had.” 

Haggar carefully picked up the glass by the rim with her skinny chicken fingers. She sniffed the mixture then drank slowly. After three gulps she let out a sigh and with the same reaction as Sendak she widened her eyes. “Where…. Did you get this?”

Shiro glanced back at Keith and Lance. “They have a friend that can make this.”

Haggar stared at Keith and Lance as she lowered her glass. She walked past Shiro and stood right between the two of them. She crossed her arms trying to make herself look taller. She glared at Lance and then at Keith. Lance tried hard not to shake with fear in front of this scary looking woman. “And who are you two?”

“They are friends of mine,” said Shiro.

Haggar nodded slowly as she continued to look at them. “You know the Don won’t be happy that you are making such relations with people outside of the business Shiro.”

“But ma’am that is exactly what we are,” said Keith, “we are only purely a friendly business relationship that was only started by mutual interest.” 

Haggar snorted. “Friendly business? Who describes business like that?”

“They said they can bring more of it in three days,” said Shiro.

She looked back at Shiro, then looked back at Keith and Lance. She eyed both of them again before she spoke. “Can you really?”

“Yes ma’am!” squeaked Lance. His nervousness couldn’t contain in his body. He cursed at himself that he actually did something.

Haggar smiled, but it wasn’t a pleasant smile. “Alright,” she said, “you have three days. If not, then we will have to kill you both.”

________________________

“I can’t believe it!” Lance wouldn’t stop talking for the rest of the walk back to the apartment. It was already late at night that he probably woke up the entire neighborhood. Keith kept walking back in silence. “We witness a gang fight and now we are finding out some drama between the two families and now we are selling alcohol to them? And it’s not even our alcohol it’s Hunk’s! Oh my god is this really happening?”

“Would you please shut up for like five minutes?” Keith snapped back. His voice echoed between the dark buildings. Lance hoped that no one would hear the conversation. He hoped they were all still sound asleep. “Unfortunately this is what is like in the mob world so get used to it. If not your only other choice is to be killed.” 

“I know that,” Lance grumbled as he put his hands in his pockets. They continued to walk back to the apartment. But that still didn’t stop Lance from spouting whatever was coming out of his mind at 100 miles an hour. “Like holy shit. I can’t believe doing business with the mafia is happening let alone there is the fucking mafia in the first place why is this happening and now I am literally a wanted man? I mean not from the feds but I still have a gun to my head.”

Keith tried his hardest to ignore him. He walked a little faster. But Lance walked the same pace as him seemingly without noticing that he was walking faster. But he still wouldn’t shut up. 

He was still talking when they got into the apartment lobby. “I don’t have any guns I mean maybe I can fight my way but they have fucking guns! How do you even get a gun? I can’t even shoot a gun! I suck at Call of Duty I sure as hell can’t shoot a real gun-”

“Lance.” Keith glared at him when they got to the elevator door. He pressed the button to go up. “I know you’re freaking out but seriously shut the fuck up.” Lance couldn’t believe Keith just said that to him, but then again he also wasn’t that surprised. The elevator door dinged and opened its doorways. “All you have to do from now on is stick with me you don’t have to do much if you’re that afraid,” he said as they walked in.

Lance scoffed and pressed the third floor button. “I am not afraid. Who do you think you’re talking to? I’m the one and only Lance McClain.” He huffed his chest making himself look very proud.

“Who is apparently afraid of the mafia and guns.”

Lance squawked. “I’m not afraid! I just….” he trailed off. “Need to learn how to use one… But besides!” He quickly reconciled back. “I need to make sure you are okay!”

Keith looked at him with a look that was confused and disgusted at the same time. “Why? I’m a grown man Lance I can fight for myself.”

“Look I can’t back out on this man. At least my job can be to be your guardian angel.”

Keith stared at Lance for a few moments with no expression. The slow elevator hummed through the doorways making the situation awkward.Then Keith turned around and hunched over. Lance’s heart quickly flew. He put his hands on Keith’s back with worry. “Keith…. Are you okay? Was it something I said?”

He realized that Keith was shaking slightly. He heard muffled sounds from Keith. Lance’s heart beat faster thinking that he might have hurt him. Then the sounds grew louder. It sounded almost like snickering. The snickering gradually became louder into laughter. He was…. Laughing…. Keith was laughing. Lance;s heart almost stopped. He thought he would never hear that sweet sound ever again. The last time Lance heard his laugh was eight years ago when they were children. Even though now Keith was much older with a deeper voice, the resonance was still the same. Quiet, but bright and bubbly. He forgot how much lighter and warm it made him feel. 

The elevator dinged and the doors opened. Keith tried to cease his laughter. He covered his mouth hoping it would stop. “God what are you twelve?” He slightly laughed in between his words as he walked out of the doors. 

Lance stood dumbfounded. When the doors try to close in on him he slammed the rims and pushed the door away. “Is there anything wrong with showing a little bit of kindness?”

They walked in front of their apartment door. Lance dug in his pockets to find his keys. “No,” said Keith. Lance looked up and was greeted with a smile. The first smile he had seen from Keith after eight years. The slight curve spread across made Lance feel warm and glowing. “I just think you’re too much sometimes.”

Lance chuckled as he opened the door. “I’m doing my gentleman duties alright? Just lay it off on me a little-OH MY GOD!” He screeched at the top of his lungs at the sight in his apartment. On the couch, Hunk had a girl straddling on top of his hands in her skirt. The girl shrieked and jumped up to smooth her skirt out while looking furiously down at the floor. Hunk groaned and covered his red face with his hands. 

“Dude… at least fucking knock….”

“Why?! I live here!” Lance looked at Hunk and then at the girl and then back at Hunk again. “What are you guys doing at 3 in the morning?”

Hunk glared at him. “I don’t know Lance, what were  _ you _ guys doing at 3 in the morning?”

The girl stomped over to the couch and snatched her jacket. “I’ll call you later,” she mumbled under her breath. She stomped all the way to the door ignoring Lance and Keith and into the hallway. When her footsteps ceased Hunk let out a loud sigh. 

“So,” Lance started. He wiggled his eyebrows at Hunk’s disappointed face. Keith quietly and politely closed the door behind him. “Who was that?” He asked in a sing-song voice.

“No one,” Hunk muttered. He covered a pillow over his face in embarrassment and let out an ugly groan. 

“That was obviously someone.” Lance wasn’t going to let this get away. Hunk almost never talked about his love life so he was dying to know how Hunk got some with a random girl. 

“Her name is Shay,” said Hunk through the pillow.

“Aw yeah? She’s pretty cute.” 

Hunk dug his face deeper into the pillow. “Yeah…” He finally said muffled into the pillow. 

“Hunk we need to talk,” said Keith. He was standing right in front of him with his arms crossed.

Hunk quickly sat up. His expression changed from embarrassment to concern as if what just happened five minutes ago didn’t happen.“Uh yeah sure. What’s wrong?” 

Keith dug into his coat pocket and threw a thick envelope on the coffee table. He gestured at it to Hunk. Hunk blinked and realized what he meant. He slowly leaned over and took the envelope with his hands and opened it. His mouth and eyes widened then with the same expression he looked at Keith. “What did you guys do? How much money is this?” 

“We need more of the Galaxia in three days can you do it?”

Hunk blinked again. “More what?”

“The booze!” said Lance. “The swirly sparkly pretty stuff that you gave Keith who gave it to Shiro who in turn really liked it who was like oh we should sell this and-”

“Wait.” Hunk put a hand out in towards Lance’s direction. He stood up slowly with the pillow dropping to the ground. He glanced at Lance, then Keith, then Lance again. He tried to open his mouth to say something but closed it. He groaned in thought. Then he looked at both of them again. “The mafia wants it?” His voice was almost higher than his original voice that he squeaked a little. 

Lance slumped over and shuffled his feet. “Yeah… mostly because we kind of a gun to our heads…”

“What the fuck did you guys do?” Hunk screamed. Lance tried to shush him down as it was the middle of the night.

“A gang fight happened. And no, we are not injured,” said Keith. But Hunk didn't seem concern about that at all at the moment. His mouth was still gaping at the wad of money in his hands.

“Uh excuse you,” Lance interrupted, “but you elbowed me in the head remember?”

Keith ignored him. “And don’t worry, we didn’t mention your name at all. So they have no idea who you are.” Hunk glared at him and then sulked back into his couch sinking deeper and deeper. “We need a big batch in three days in order to gain their trust. I am hoping,” Keith nodded at the envelope, “that should be enough.”

“Great,” Hunk threw his hands up dropping the envelope of money to the ground, “first I got to deal with shitty frat boys and now I got to deal with the fucking mafia too?”

“The frat boys won’t be coming back here,” Keith lowered himself. “I’ll make sure of that. You just focus on making more of that.”

Hunk stared at Keith for a while. Then he glanced at Lance. Lance only replied to him with a shrug. “Dude, I’m just tagging along only because they are the mafia. And you don’t mess with the mafia.” 

Hunk glanced back at Keith. He made an annoyed humming sound and then he let out a yelp. He threw his hands up and then covered his head as he hunched over. He let out a sigh and looked back up at Keith. “You have something planned don’t you?”

“I do.”

“It’s important right?”

“Very.” Keith’s expression was almost emotionless.

Hunk let out another sigh. He closed his eyes for a moment only soaking in the quietness of the dark apartment. Then he opened his eyes at Keith. “Fine. I’ll do it. How much do you need?”

“How about 20 bottles?”

“Done.”

“Can you really… do it in three days?” Lance started to ask.

“Lance don’t question me! I can okay!” yelled an exhasperated Hunk. He groaned when a furious knock came from the door. “God can someone get that? I’m going to bed I had enough of this bullshit.”

Lance squirmed his way behind to the door. The knocking kept going it almost sounded like the person was going to ram the door down. Lance opened the door. “What do you want it’s three in the morning-”

“Lance!” Pidge yelled and tumbled themselves on Lance. Lance caught the smaller child in the arms and tried to get them standing. They were wheezing heavily with a face in a panic. 

“Woah woah Pidge!” Lance tried to calm them down by kneeling over and shaking their shoulders. Pidge kept hypervenalting. THey had the look as if they saw something died. They stared at the floor and then looked at Lance with choking sobs. “Pidge what is going on?”

Pidge tried to hold back all the sobs in between their chokes. They took off their glasses and rubbed their eyes with their sleeves. “Matt,” they muttered.

“Matt? What happened to Matt?”

Pidge put back their glasses and sniffled. “Matt’s gone. They took him away.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is Matt okay????????? who...,,,, knows,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
> 
> Also I've been having another idea for another klance fic that would be they are aggressively flirting with each other but they don't know that one of them is a cop and the other is a gangster but yeah anyway orz

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for taking the time to read! Let me know if you're interested for more! My tumblr is durararas and twitter is _drrrs.


End file.
